Mornings with Charlie

Charlie loves to spend an hour or more in the yard, in the morning. Not alone, of course, but with Mommy. I sit, while he does his charlie business sniffing the grass, checking out the bamboo, patrolling the perimeter. I only follow him when he goes around to the front of the house. Charlie hasn't tried to leave the yard, yet, but I'd rather be cautious.

So this morning, even tho he was already out once, he bounced up on the bed and woke me with a dog's version of 'mommy, mommy, MOMMY!!!!!'. I dragged my butt out of bed, threw on clothes and out we went. This morning I made it as far as the kitchen steps when I settled in. Charlie looked puzzled for a second, ran up, touched my knee with his nose and then raced to the chair I usually sit in and touched his nose to it, then gave me a look. No chair for me. It rained last night and I didn't want to sit in a puddle. Charlie accepted that and eventually headed for the front yard.

There I sat on the front steps watching Charlie doing his thing. He run back to me occasionally to climb the steps up behind me, wuff softly in my ear, and then take those stairs two at a time to go back about his snuffling.

Oh the joy of the little guy! Life is an adventure for him, one he is willing to share with me. He's fascinated by everything. There was a bird near us and he sat so very still watching it and when the bird finally flew off, he looked at me, and grinned. (Charlie, not the bird.)

Tomorrow it's back to the vet for his rabies shot and I am looking forward to the surprise of the staff when they see how that poor dying dog bounced back and bloomed. In fact, they are going to have to deal with his tick, because we can't get him to sit still long enough to work on it, not even the oldest son can hold him still enough. But he's healthy enough to struggle and to yap and to chase shadows. Isn;t that what's important?