He's not just a memory

Yes, Charlie fills my life with delight but I still miss my Ollie and my Rocco, not to mention all of the other pets who have crossed the rainbow bridge. Little dog Ollie was a character. To look at him you would have thought that he was a frou frou dog but looks can be deceiving.

Ollie loved water and puddles and mud. He also loved taking a rolled rawhide outside and leaving it somehere so it would get rained on turning it into an almost indestructable flattened piece of hide. Usually by the time that happened, it was covered with dirt and who knows what all but, to Ollie, it was a treat. Not that he actually chewed it. Once it was all soft and floppy it was then hidden away somewhere for later. Thinking of it now, Ollie must have been part pirate always hiding his treasure to dig it up and rebury it elsewhere so his crew (Rocco) couldn't find it.

We have had three days of down pour. Downpour so massive that every muscle in m y body ached for days before it started. Today there is sun shine and little humidity just the kind of weather Charlie adores. He was in the yard and I needed to bring him in so I could open the gate and leave and when I called his name he came bouncing toward me, eyes bright, and this square of god knows what hanging out of his mouth. When he got closer I knew he had found one of Ollie's treasures.

I do mean treasure. You would have thought that Charlie had found the holy grail so thrilled was he with this dirty floppy bit of skin. He tossed it in the air, the pounced. Grabbed it, somehow managing to twirl it around his head only to let go and have to go pounce on it one more time. No flapping rawhide was going to get the best of HIM! I eventually got Charlie into the house after the rawhide had escaped his mouth and had to be recaptured another couple of times and once Charlie and the rawhide made it into the house, Charlie threw it down and rolled on it, thrilled that he had this wet, spotted thing all for his own.

I know when Ollie hid this away, he was saving it for himself and not for some fuzzy eared dog tween. (Not quite puppy, not quite grown but somewhere in beTWEEN) I don't know why Ollie hid it, in the first place, he never did chew it once soggy. Maybe he was just hiding and rehiding it to tease Rocco. Whatever the reason, it now comforts me. I feel as if Ollie isn't as far away as I thought. He's still here. Still around in the things he hid, the puddles he used to run through, the sher joy of puppiness even when he was an old man of 14.

A part of me wondered if I was unfair to Ollie's memory getting a puppy within a month of losing him (Ollie) But now I see, in a square of wet rawhide, that Ollie has bestowed on Charlie a gift, a memory for me,. A message that he understands and is glad that Charlie is here. A gift to Charlie to tell him he is welcome. And here I thought it was only a square of wet rawhide.

Charlie and the Vet

It was time for Charlie's rabies shot and so off we went. The husband the dog and me. Charlie rides well in the car, unlike Ollie who used to try and climb me and then hang from my head like a badly fitting scarf. Charlie, however sat nicely on my lap and I noticed that he has to have a paw on my arm at all times. maybe he was doing it for balance but maybe he just felt better holding onto mommy's arm.

We get to the vet and are hardly out of the car when Miss Kathrine comes out of the office, throws her arms wide open and calls out "there's my Charlie Boy!" Charlie raced to her to be swept up into her arms and I don't know who nuzzled more, Miss Katherine or Charlie. In the waiting room, kisses had to be gotten from and given to Miss Tabby. Charlie strutted around that waiting room as if he was the king of the world and when it was time to see the Doctor, the other two lab techs were in the room with us. It was like a party with laughing and smiling, no one able to quite believe the miracle of Charlie who doubled his weight in only 10 days.

Charlie was good for the vet. They were able to remove the tick that Older son and I had failed to do because we just couldn't hold charlie still long enough to remove it. They removed it easily and hopefully if he gets another one, I'll be able to remove it even if both the sons and the husband has to lay on Charlie to hold him still.

Charlie was equally good on the ride home. I took him into the house while the husband took off to do work stuff and I was going to follow once Charlie went for his nap. Charlie has never been home alone and I hoped that if he was sleeping when I left that he would sleep through the afternoon.

HOWEVER>>>>

The husband had turned up the air conditioning before we left for the vet and Charlie, who lies ON the vent, was unhappy and whined at me until I turned it down a degree and the air condtioning kicked on. Is some puppy spoiled? Probably... ok yes he is. He doesn't need to see the vet for a year but it will be sooner than that because we are planning to srupise the vet and staff with make their own ice cream sundaes as a way of saying thank you.

Yes I know they were doing their job. Yes I know if they didn't love animals they wouldn's have the jobs that they had. Yes I know they got paid for it. BUT THEY SAVED CHARLIE'S LIFE. If I could, I'd give them gold but ice cream will have to do.

Not all angels have wings.

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?