We knew Autumn’s name before we ever met her. It seemed perfect for an “amber” golden retriever. Problem was she was a white golden, something we didn’t even know existed. But the name stuck. We brought Autumn home in 2003 – before we had kids. A dog would be a test. Practice to see if we were ready and able to raise a significant form of life before we got to the child thing. We drove all the way to Turlock (yeah, Kaepernick’s home town) and chose what seemed to be the runt of a litter of goldens.