life with Charlie

June 2015

A week and a half later and we're quite mad about our Charlie girl. She has fit into our lives so perfectly; it reminds me of our first days with Shifu. The rest of our life is kinda upside down but we know that we've been blessed by adding this little sweetheart to our family.

We've been busy over the past couple of weekends, taking her here and there.

 first visit to the beach

 first visit to my favorite park in Carmel

 now we know she's my dog, she is rockin' that hat!

 driving around with me during the week

 picnic in the park

super Charlie, able to leap tall stumps in a single bound

Sometimes I look at her and marvel about the perfect timing, perfect setup of events (good and bad) that brought us together. 

I love our little family

Charlie is home

May 29, 2015 - continued

9pm – Charlie lives at our house!! Yes SHE does.

It’s been a whirlwhind of a day, let me tell you. At 2:30 we visited Penny in her foster home and promptly fell in love. Before we got there I told myself that I needed to see a couple of things from this dog if she really was going to be my Charlie. She had to be friendly to us right away and she needed to give us kisses like Shifu always used to.  If these things didn’t happen, she wasn’t our Charlie.

We walked in and she was brought out. Right away she ran over to us and rolled over on her back to let us pet her. She stayed with us during our entire visit, alternating between T and me and she gave us so many kisses. She would come when we called her and eventually just curled up in my lap giving me the occasional kiss on the chin. 

We looked at each other and we just knew. She looks like a cross between Bear, Jasper and Shifu. She’s about Shifu’s size, just a little longer like maybe she has some dachshund in her in addition to Chihuahua. She’s adorable and mellow and friendly and sweet and playful. When we got ready to leave she ran to the front door, all excited, as if she expected to go with us.

We drove straight from her house to the animal rescue office, about 30 minutes away. Once there we filled out the contract and adopted our little sweetheart. Normally you have to wait a few days so that they can do a house check but since we had previously adopted from another rescue group in the area they waived that step and we were told that we could go get her whenever we wanted.

Of course we wanted to get her right away so I called the foster family and made arrangements to come out at 7 tonight. I think they were a little stunned that it all happened so quickly but they were kind enough to understand that we were anxious to take her home.

Because it was only 4 at that time, we celebrated our new addition with dinner at a new Mexican place we’d discovered 2 days ago when we parked in front of it. 16 years living in this area and we’d somehow missed this great place. While having dinner we talked about Charlie and also about Shifu. Getting a new dog after losing a beloved one is always a little bittersweet. There’s a part of you that feels like you’re betraying the former dog in some way. We had to remind ourselves that we weren’t replacing Shifu in any way and that it was really a tribute to how much we loved him that we wanted to experience that again.

While at dinner I texted Marley’s foster mom to let her know that we wouldn’t be keeping our appointment for the next day because we just completed an adoption.  I’ll always be grateful that Marley’s picture prompted me to fill out the online application to ask to meet him and Penny.

And so at 7pm we went to the foster house and were greeted by a very happy little doggie who seemed genuinely happy to see us again. She was sitting on the couch with the daughter (who she slept with every night) and she jumped down off the couch as soon as we walked into the room and ran over to us with her tail wagging a mile a minute. When she saw the leash in our hands she ran to the door just like she had earlier this afternoon. Of course saying goodbye to her family was a little hard on her and she was rather subdued when we carried her out to the car but she perked up on the drive home and seemed curious about what was happening to her.

And now, a couple of hours later she’s sleeping next to me on the couch and seems quite comfortable in her new home. Charlie has explored the back yard, jumped on both of our couches, eaten a few human snacks (from her daddy, he’s going to spoil her) and enjoyed many cuddle sessions and back scratches.

She really does look a lot like Shifu so in many ways it seems like life has come back to normal but I will keep reminding myself that she’s Charlie and not Shifu. She deserves the chance to be her own little person rather than just a substitute. Right now we’re noticing all sorts of behaviors that remind us of Shifu but in time I’m sure we will discover her own unique personality.

We’ve got a whole lovely weekend ahead of us to get used to each other and have adventures. Tomorrow I imagine we’ll end up at the beach at some point. Shifu and Jasper never liked the ocean much although Jasper enjoyed playing fetch on the sand. I wonder if Charlie will be different and love the water. I can’t wait to find out. 

I’m so happy that we found our Charlie!

Charlie's story - day 2

May 28, 2015

When we landed in San Francisco yesterday we decided to visit the animal rescue’s storefront site in a neighboring town. I’d been visiting their web page and had noticed 2 or 3 dogs I wouldn’t mind taking a look at. Of course none of those dogs were at the site and T and I both looked at each other and said “Charlie isn’t here.” Although I hadn’t planned on getting a dog yesterday, I found myself down and disappointed and lonely and missing Shifu more than ever.

So today, on the 2 month anniversary of his death, I’m wondering if maybe Shifu has sent Charlie to us. I found a new dog on the website – a 4 year old Chihuahua mix named Marley. He has bright eyes and Shifu-like ears that stick straight up. He’s a dark brown and looks like he’s a lot of fun. I filled out the on-line application and within 2 hours I had a phone call from the woman that’s fostering him and we arranged to meet up tomorrow at 11am. 

Isn’t he adorable? We’ll see if he actually turns out to be Charlie. I can’t wait to meet him!

May 29, 2015

I couldn’t wait to meet him but I guess I’m going to have to. I got a text from Marley’s foster mom that she had slept late and decided not to bring Marley into work with her today so she wanted to reschedule our appointment until Saturday. Heart thud. Sigh. Ok.

But, in other news, I had gotten an email from Penny’s foster mom (another dog I had asked to see) this morning and so I emailed her back, let her know that our appointment to see Marley had been canceled and asked if she might be available today for us to meet Penny…and she is! We’re going to her house at 2:30, in a little over 2 hours. 

Isn’t she sweet? She looks like our other dogs – a cross between Jasper, Bear and Shifu but she’s a girl and I’ve always wanted a girl. She’s a 2 year old, 9 pound longhair Chihuahua mix.

Isn’t it funny, I feel like I’m being unfaithful to Marley by even considering Penny but she just looks like a dog that would belong in our family. As excited as I was to meet Marley, I’m even more excited to meet Penny! Doesn’t she look like a Charlie?

Charlie's story - day 1

It seems odd to start writing now about Charlie because I haven’t met him yet. I don’t even know who he is or who he will be. Heck, I don’t even know if he is a he because he very well could be a she. I just know there is a Charlie and he (or she) is out there…waiting for us to find him.

To really tell you about Charlie’s story I would have to tell you about Shifu…and to really understand Shifu you would have to know about Jasper…and there would be no Jasper if there hadn’t been a Bear. So you see that to fully understand could take quite a while. Maybe someday I’ll tell you all their stories and how they fit together but today I am anxious to begin Charlie’s story. If only he would find me.

I knew that we needed a dog in our lives. It has been 2 months since we said goodbye to Shifu (who died of a brain tumor) and even though it breaks my heart to think about moving on, we have to. We have to have someone else to love and take care of.  Shifu saved our lives once, we need that miracle again.

Enter Charlie. Steinbeck wrote a great book called Travels with Charley about a cross country trip he made with his dog, Charley, where he reacquainted himself with America. One day a couple of weeks ago I was hit with the idea that we should get a dog named Charlie and write blog posts about travels with our Charlie. We love to travel and we’ve had so much fun taking all our dogs on the road with us that I'd love to do more of it. I mentioned the idea to T and he loved it too. So since we knew we wanted to travel with Charlie, it seemed that getting a small dog was in order. That was our first decision because before that we’d been all over the place about whether to get a small dog, like Shifu, or another Golden, like Jasper. But Goldens can’t fit under the airplane seat and we wouldn’t ever travel with a dog in the cargo hold. So a small dog it will be. But where will we find him? 

I’m so ready to be a family again.