Charlie Moves In

On a Sunday morning about six years ago "Charlie" decided he'd had enough of living life out of the neighborhood trash cans and begging for hand outs.  Charlie chose us to adopt and he wasn't leaving and that's all there was to it.  My wife had gone up to the store to get the Sunday paper and coffee.  When she returned there was this big dog laying by her car door waiting to greet her, she wasn't getting out and Charlie wasn't leaving.  Did I mention my wife is afraid of big dogs?  My cell phone rings and it's Cherrie, I answer the phone and she said "I'm in the driveway" and I said "Soooo come on in."  Then she told me about the dog, I went out to see this so called "Big" dog, expecting to see a thirty pound dog.  Well she was right, it was a "Big" dog, about 125 pounds.


He was the one that had been hanging around the neighborhood for the past week.  We live in a rural area and people dump their pets out here when they want to get rid of them and let them fend for themselves. I got Cherrie out of the car and we spent some time with the dog and talked about what we should do.  Cherrie took to him right away and in my mind I already knew how this was going to play out.  Cherrie got him some food and water and we went in to drink our coffee and read the paper.


We decided at that time to just leave him be and hopefully the owner would come looking or someone would take him in.  He hung around for about a week in the neighborhood, later learning there were a few people feeding him and considering taking him in.  The following Saturday I was at work and Cherrie and my son David saw the dog in the front yard, so they went out to feed him and spend some time with him and plotting how they were going to convince me it would be a great idea to take him in.  I got home from work and they both began telling me about the dog.  Then they put their plan into motion, "the good guy bad guy plan", David being the good guy wanting the dog and promising to take care of it blah, blah, blah.  Cherri being the bad guy challenging David's argument, uh huh.


Cherrie and I left to do some grocery shopping, all the while talking about the dog.  Almost finished shopping I decided to throw a bag a dog food in the cart.  Cherrie asked what was that for, uh huh.  I said it was for the dog because we can't keep feeding him leftovers when he shows up. When we got home, there was the dog a few houses up sniffing everything as usual.  Cherrie looked at me and before she could say anything, I said go up and get him.  David and Cherrie went to bring the dog home and after he was home, Cherrie said, "I'm going to call him Charlie."  I asked her why "Charlie", and she said "He's just a Charlie."   "I don't know why but it just seems he's a Charlie."

Charlie moved in and fit right in, you could tell he was happy to be home.  The three cat's didn't know what to make of him but Charlie immediately made them park of his flock.  Charlie is a beautiful dog.  He's a Great Pyrenees and Golden Retriever mix.  Obviously he gets his size from the Great Pyrenees and his color from the Golden Retriever.  His characteristics are more of  the Great Pyrenees, he's a guardian dog and also very headstrong, if Charlie doesn't want to do something and there's no benefit to him, he won't do it.  For his size he is extremely gentle and the Grand kids love visiting Charlie, even when he's bigger than they are and a hello kiss involves a complete face wash with one lick.  Charlie is very protective of Cherrie and since the first night claimed his spot next to our bed.


Charlie has been good for Cherrie and I since David has since married and has his own family.  Charlie goes almost everywhere with us, he loves to go camping and hiking and there's plenty of room for him in the 5th wheel.  If you camp in Texas you probably will see Charlie.   
"Happy Trails"