Thanks, Charlie Dog

Charlie Dog

It all started with my daughter, Karyn’s, love of critters. She had some wonderful success training our knucklehead Boykin Spaniel, Tip. 4H fine tuned those skills. Tip, alas, is no more but other dogs entered our lives before Karyn struck out on her own. She owned a Basenji, a wonderfully, crazy dog that I am truly relieved belonged entirely to her. Finally she settled on a little Brittany. Her main competition in 4H dog obedience was a couple of Brittanys. We knew of their kind temperament, a perfect match for a young, growing family with kids. Aida, the Brittany, was a pleasure to be around.

Karyn, with family and dog in tow, went to visit her brother, our son, David. He, too, was quite impressed with the Brittany temperament. When he began looking for a dog, he thought he’d start with a Brittany. That took him to Brittany rescue. He was fine with adopting an “older” dog, but instead one of the Brittanys had a litter of pups. He adopted on of them – Charlie.

Charlie joined David, almost two years ago. He was shorter haired than most but had the Brittany pink nose and the white coat scattered with orange markings. As Charlie grew, he started looking less like a Brittany and more like an English pointer – except for his docked tail and pink nose.

David and his girlfriend were quite consistent in training Charlie so he became a very well behaved dog. Life changes and David had to move from his house with a yard to an apartment with no yard. He went from employment that demanded his weekends but left his weekdays mostly free, to just the opposite. It didn’t look like Charlie was going to fit into this life style very well.

I don’t want dogs. I love dogs but I am at a time in my life when I don’t really want to care for critters. I don’t like picking up poop, I don’t like vacuuming dog hair, and I don’t like nagging people to take care of their pets. Well, I caved. Rather than David finding someone else to take care of Charlie, I said we’d foster him. Karyn was the logical choice for caring for Charlie, as he and Aida were great pals. However, Karyn had adopted another Brittany. 3 dogs, a bird, numerous fish, 2 boys, and full load of college class work seemed to be on the verge of overload even for a critter lover. Besides she lived too far away.

So Charlie came to live with us. We have a very large yard but can’t fence it in due to covenants. We put in an underground electric fence which works great. We live on the edge of a farm field so there is plenty of running room. I insisted that, if we took this dog, that Tom and I both would give him 2 walks a day. He is a sporting dog, after all, and needs to run. David was hoping that Tom’s skill at training a hunting dog to hunt pheasants might also be a plus for both of them when hunting season rolled around. I decided it was imperative to get Charlie in shape for an all day hunt.

We brought him home with us the end of March 2010. We have been diligent walking him nearly every day although not always twice a day. It has been a boon for us, too, as we needed the excuse to get off our butts and do something outside.

The other day as summer wanes and the days are getting shorter, I was out with Charlie. The sunset was gorgeous, the cornfield behind our house is taller than me and I reflected on the changing of the seasons. I have to thank Charlie Dog for demanding his walk everyday. I have connected with the outdoors this year as we walked across bare ground at the end of winter, avoided the field as the crops came peaking through in the spring, and now play hide and seek up and down the tall corn rows. Thanks, Charlie – maybe I did want a dog after all.