Old Soul Puppy

Ok - so weird post for me, and not even sure what I'm asking exactly, but here's the story. Sorry for the long explanation.

My family got a Golden Retriever a few years ago and he was an absolutely amazing dog. In every sense - I've had dogs my whole life, but this guy was extra special. Part of that might be that he was the first dog we got as a puppy after we had kids, so their bond with him was close.

About a year ago, at only like 19 months old, he got a weird, rather rare, cancer and passed away quickly. It was tough, we ended up burying him in the yard, kids threw every toy he ever had in with him, decorated a stone, and more.

Well 2 weeks ago, at the baseball field where my kids play, a friend showed up with a black lab, about 12 weeks old, and said a friend of theirs found him dropped off in a cardboard box at the dump and couldn't keep him. They wanted our friend to find them a home, and she came to us. She doesn't even know why she thought we'd want it, she was going to post his pictures to the field page, but said she just decided to bring him to see us knowing we had a game that night. No warning, no prior phone call to talk about it, just bright him to the game. He's not registered obviously, but if he's not a full lab - I'd be amazed.

We weren't actively looking for a dog, we planned to at some point, but just not yet. Well, the kids of course loved him, as did my wife, who was the biggest hold out for getting the next pup. They're all like can we keep him, pleeease? So I said, if y'all are ready, then obviously yes lol. Something about his eyes, it seemed right. See pictures.

Well he is, of course, still a puppy, and does normal puppy destruction - but overall, this is the calmest puppy I've ever had. So the weird stuff I guess I'm asking about...

First off, we repeatedly, and frequently, accidentally call this dog by our golden's old name. For literally no reason, they don't sound the same, they aren't the same type/ color dog, and it's been a year since we had the golden. My 4yo does it all the time, but I don't know if it's accidental with him. I said, that's not his name dude. He says, absolutely serious, yes it is daddy, he has both names. 😵‍💫

This pup goes and lays next to the grave of our old dog, which is not near an area we play with him at or otherwise go. Not digging, just lays there.

He mimics the mannerisms of the golden in an absurd number of ways. He lays in the same spots, lays the same weird ways, and just generally acts like the golden even for things you wouldn't expect from a puppy. He spent zero time "learning" the house... he just seemed to know where to go. He didn't want to go in the crate with a nice blanket for padding, normal I thought, but instead ran to and paced around the spot where the dog bed used to be and whined just looking at us. So I put the crate in that spot, unpacked the old dog bed and put it inside, and he promptly went in on his own and went to sleep.

We use those treat/food puzzles, I gave him a really hard, level 4, one, the golden took a couple weeks to master all of it, and the 12 wk old puppy solved it like he had done it a 100 times. Like no figuring it out, no experimenting, just did it.

When our friend brought the dog, he bypassed 20 other kids at the ballfield and ran directly to my younger two kids. At this point they didn't even know about the dog, so they weren't calling him or anything.

I feel like I'm being super crazy and weird, and I'm a very science and fact based person, but I swear there's some cosmic connection or something going on here. From the way he acts, to the very atypical way we even happened to be given him.

So I guess, am I just crazily projecting, or has anyone else felt like that before? It's ok if y'all just tell me I've lost it lol. I'm sure it's just some subconscious connection my brain is making, but it just feels like something I cannot explain. And I am in no way a person that typically puts any stock in things like that.

If you read this far, thanks for the therapy session lol.