Life With Charlie

Back in September, we adopted Charlie, a Morkie.  That supposedly is a “designer dog.”  Who ever thought a mixed breed dog was a designer dog?  Charlie is a special mixed breed.  His mother was a Maltese, and his dad was a Yorkshire Terrier.  That makes Charlie a Maltshire Terrorist! 

Being a little dog with a big personality is the best way to describe Charlie.  He is loaded with bad habits.  

• He loves pulling the toilet paper roll as far as it can go before he decides to shred it into small unusable pieces.  Therefore, all bathroom doors now remain closed.

• He has stolen my slippers too many times to count, and believes the foam in the soles are a tasty treat.  He also steals my tennis shoes, but doesn’t seem to chew on them (yet).  Dennis’s shoes are just too big and heavy for Charlie to steal.

• Anything paper is fair game for this pup.  In an instant he will have it shredded to unusable portions.  We have thought of hiring him out to Staples for their shredding service.  He is fast also.  Don’t drop a piece of paper, as he will have it and be across the house before I can get out of my chair.  

• We both had to replace our eyeglasses early on.  He is a chewer.  Lessons learned is that NOTHING can be sitting at low tables or chairs.  He cannot reach anything table or counter height—glad he’s a little dog!  Yes, we have pretty much puppy-proofed the house.

• Any doorbell, including doorbells on television send Charlie barking and running to the front door.  Who is he protecting me from?  I have never seen such a funny reaction to a doorbell.  Even if he is sleeping on my lap, and a doorbell sounds (real or on tv), he is immediately off my lap, bolts to the front door, and barks to stop whatever real or imagined intruder may be there.

The problem with Charlie is that he is so stinkin’ cute!  Even when he steals my stuff, the look on that cute little furry face makes it hard to believe he has broken the eighth commandment!

We are both new at this puppy thing.  It is like having a baby all over again.  He is needy—he needs to know he is loved at all times.  And like a child, he knows the words he wants to know—treats.  I now have to spell the word just like I did when my kids were toddlers.  If I say the word out loud, no matter where in the house he is, within a split second he will be on my lap seeking out his favorite thing in life—a yummy treat.

Charlie is getting more patient as I work in my sewing room.  Since I do a lot of machine embroidery, I can set the machine to go, and then spend some time with him while it is sewing.  If I am doing something more sewing intensive, he will watch me, and then bark at me.  Sometimes he doesn’t want to play, but he wants something, and continue to bark.  I have learned that “Timmy has not fallen in the well.” (Old Lassie reference).  If I take a break and go in the living room, he will follow me and hop on my lap and immediately take a nap.  He was just looking for my lap to sleep.  Silly dog!

Charlie loves other people.  Too much!  I have learned that when we have guests, Charlie is leashed so I can step on it to prevent him from jumping into an unsuspecting lap.  After a short while he gets used to having guests, and his enthusiasm wanes.  

Charlie loves other dogs—at a distance.  He loves watching dogs on television.  I have found many YouTube channels with calming music and dogs playing.  This is usually played for him if we leave home so he won’t be completely bored and try to eat the furniture.  Up front and personal, Charlie is afraid of larger dogs.  I’m not sure if its his safety that he worries about or the fact that this big dog just might be more in charge than this 14 pound fuzz ball.  I really want him comfortable around other dogs, but he hasn’t had too many opportunities to see other pups.

Fetching is his favorite sport.  Our home is long from front to back.  I have this little ball that I can throw from the back of the house to the front.  Charlie is all about fetching, especially if there are treats involved.  He will run full speed to get the ball, then like any great athlete, slide into his destination and then deliver the ball back as fast as he can.  When picking up the ball to throw again, he is already running half way by the time the ball is released.  

We celebrated Charlie’s 1st birthday on February 2nd.  He wasn’t big on the birthday hat.  He seemed okay with the doggie cake.  

Two days later he got really sick.  Dennis was hiking on the mountain with a friend when I noticed Charlie was having dry heaves.  He was acting very strange, and he just kept drooling.  I was sure my dog was dying.  I thought maybe he ate something in my sewing room—a bobbin, a sewing needle, something bad.  I called Dennis and he was on his way home.  I called the vet’s office and rather than having us go there, they told us to take Charlie to the emergency hospital in Queen Creek.  Who knew there was a huge animal facility that had not only an ER, but a cardiac unit, hemodialysis, surgery, and critical care unit.  I was thinking I was really a bad dog mom.  How could I let my dog get this sick?  The ER attendant took Charlie and said she would be back out after evaluating him.  About 10 minutes later she returned and said Charlie seems to have the symptom of a marijuana overdose.  Could she do a blood test on him?  Of course she could.  He will be negative and they will find a sewing needle or something other nepharious item from my sewing room.  A few minutes later she returned and stated that his blood test was positive for THC.  Really?  How?  I found out if you say that out loud, they look at you funny, like I should know the answer to that.  Well, I didn’t.  We have never used such a substance, even as a medical prescription.

They treated him with an anti-nausea injection, and an IV to dilute whatever was in his system.  We brought him home and he slept most of the day.  When I came home, I got on my computer to research what else has the substance THC that he might have gotten into.  Well, there is nothing else.  I learned that now that this substance is legal in most states, people are sloppy with it, and dropping just a little bit on the street or on a trail can be picked up by our pets, and can be lethal to them.  So scary. The next day my son called to see how Charlie was doing.  He asked if Charlie was wearing a tie-dye shirt and listening to the Grateful Dead.  I informed him that, no he wasn’t, but he was eating a plate of tacos at the moment!  Haha!  Yes, that’s a “getting high” joke!

Charlie hates when I try to put clothes or hats on him. We were going to Prescott in December and it is cold there. I got him a hat and boots in case it snowed. He was not happy.

We really do enjoy Charlie.  He keeps us laughing.  He loves car rides and has done a couple short trips in the RV.  This summer will be good taking him around the country. 

We say he will keep us young—if it doesn’t kill us first!

As Charles Schulz stated, “Happiness is a warm puppy.”