Hello, Charlie!

We did a thing!  What kind of thing did we do?  We got a puppy!  Yes, a puppy!  Two people whose average age is 75 adopted a puppy!  I told Dennis that since we have been married 10 years, maybe we are mature enough for a child in our home!  How did this happen?

Last year when my son moved to Missouri, and for his 50th birthday, he adopted a Chihuahua who he named Snack.  Snack is so cute, and has become a great companion to my son.  I spent a week in Missouri at my son’s place, and really got very fond of Snack.  

Before Snack, I never considered a little dog.  I noticed, though, that when a little dog has an accident, it’s a little accident.  That was sure a promising idea.

Then this spring another of my sons who lives in Missouri sent me a photo of his new rescue, Timmy.  Timmy is a little dog also.  I met him this summer.  My other two sons have larger dogs.

Dennis and I talked about a pet, but we both decided it wasn’t something we needed to do.  We would have to figure out how to travel in our RV if we got a dog.  What about traveling by air?  Were we really ready and willing to add a pup into our lives?

Dennis has a bigger history of a pet owner than I do, although we have both had pets in our past. I always felt I was better owning a cat because they pretty much take care of themselves, but I knew that I was not excited at all about the idea of a litter box.  It would be especially troublesome traveling in our RV.  As I read many people’s method of where they put the litter boxes in their RV’s, none of these ideas appealed to me at all.

Every so often I would go online to see what kind of dogs were available in the Phoenix area.  It just overwhelmed me.  I didn’t know what to look for or where to look.  Just a week ago, last Monday to be exact, I told my son I decided that it was too overwhelming thinking about getting a dog.  I haven’t had a dog since 1999, and Dennis’s dog died shortly after we met (he was 17—the dog, not Dennis).  It was a long time since we have been dog parents.

After speaking with my son last Monday, I proceeded to go out and work out in the swim spa.  I came in to take a shower, and Dennis went out to work out.  I walked out of the bathroom and sitting on the dresser in the bedroom was a computer printout of this really cute dog named Charlie.  Really?

A couple hours later I asked Dennis why he printed this picture.  He said he thought the dog was cute.  To my surprise, I learned that he had been looking online at rescue dogs also.  I didn’t really respond, not sure what to think about his research.  About a half hour later I asked he he wanted to go check this dog out.  Yes he did. 

We drove clear across the Phoenix area to find this rescue place.  For those of you who do not know the Phoenix area, it takes a full hour to drive across this huge city.  There were two dogs we wanted to see. One was Charlie and the other Tito who was a brown and white Chihuahua.  Tito was not there, but Charlie was.  

We looked at Charlie.  He was easy to recognize.  We went on to look at some of the others, but I saw Dennis going back to Charlie.  I told the young lady who was helping us that I think it’s Charlie because Dennis kept going back to him.  She informed me that he was a designer dog.  Gucci or Louis Vutton?  No, just a Morkie, which is a mix of Yorkshire Terrier and Maltese.

Charlie came home with us.  Not only did we get this 7 month old puppy, we received his fancy bed, all his toys, a huge fancy dog food container filled with his dog food, and 4 bottles of refrigerated cauliflower/broccoli that was blended to put on his food, and lots of toys.  What we didn’t realize is that Charlie had been at the rescue only one day!  His previous owner had brought him in with all his belongings.  She cried as she left him.  Her husband had a medical emergency and she couldn’t care for both.  We happily took this pup off her hands.

Charlie is still a baby—7 months old, weighing only 10 lbs.  He is not expected to get much bigger. His first night was great.  We put his bed in his crate and we heard no crying or barking that night.

We have learned that he can bark, and bark a lot.  He seems to think someone is at the front door and will bark and bark.  I pick him up and open the door and show him that there is nothing outside.  We finally realized that he sees his reflection in the glass in the front door and also in the patio door and then starts barking at this strange dog looking back at him.  He is slowly getting used to seeing himself or us in the reflection.

He fetches!  That was a surprise. He hasn’t quite figured out sitting and staying, but if I throw a toy, he will fetch it and drop it back at my feet.  He is smart—he will learn commands as time goes on.

Charlie is curious, and like a toddler.  He puts everything in his mouth—we are continually vigilant just like having a baby in the house.  He loves to crawl in our laps and sleep.  We will work on his manners, as he is a bit too rambunctious when meeting new people.  I am sure that we will have years of fun and love from this special puppy.