Charlie

Charlie

It is quiet around our house at the moment. Not because of an absence of the grandkids or visitors. There is a lack of presence. It is because Charlie is gone. Charlie, the faithful companion of our son Tim, had to be put to sleep. For fourteen years Charlie and Tim were inseparable buddies. They were the embodiment of the man-dog friendship.

Charlie came into our lives those many years ago because his owners abandoned him. At the time his name was Mocha, a terrible name for a dog. This runt of a Sheltie moved in with Judy and I while the owner was trying to decide what to do with him. We already had a Sheltie puppy named Sparky. I wasn’t sure we could handle two dogs.

When Tim met Mocha, it was love at first sight. From that moment on, Mocha was Tim’s dog. It wasn’t long before Mocha became Charlie. The rest of the story is a saga of man and dog teaching each other about life especially unconditional love. Rarely did you see Tim without Charlie and vice versa.

All my life there has been a dog around. I can’t recall all of their names but I do remember most of their faces and the friendship we shared. For the past thirty years we have taken a fancy to Shelties: Jingle Bells, Sparky, Charlie and now Daisy Mae. They grow on you, become part of the family and almost become human.

John Steinbeck wrote a book some years ago titled “Travels With Charley.” This quote reminds me of Tim and his Charlie: “It is my experience that in some areas Charley is more intelligent that I am, but in others he is abysmally ignorant. He can’t read, can’t drive a car, and has no grasp of mathematics. But in his own field of endeavor, which he is now practicing, the slow, imperial smelling over and anointing on an area, he has no peer. Of course his horizons are limited, but how wide are mine?”

Charlie may have been small in stature but where it really matters, he was larger than life. Thanks Charlie for sharing your life with us. We miss you much.