Charlie

The other morning I got up for work and when I looked across the half dark room, without my glasses on, I thought I saw Charlie laying on the floor my our bed. Well, it turned out just to be a pile of clothes that I needed to put in the washer (but not quite yet as Te-Te was sleeping on them). It's been almost 6 months since Charlie passed away, just right after the ice storm. I still find myself really missing him. When I sat on the couch, he'd always sit at my feet. At night, he'd sleep on the floor by my side of the bed. I just got used to stepping over him every time got up. He was the only one of the animals that I could completely trust around the boys. They could do anything to him and he would just look over at me like, 'here they go again!". I always loved every summer when we would get him shaved down, except for his fluffy tail. You could tell how good he felt, he would come home and prance around the yard. My only complaint is that during the later years he developed an annoying crayon-eating habit. I had to buy more than one pack to make up for the ones that fell on the floor and got eaten. On the other hand, we always referred to him as the clean up crew. After supper, we would just let Charlie in and the floor would be spotless. This was especially helpful as we had children.

Joe always said after the animals we had were gone, no more. But it didn't take long for him to suggest that maybe we should get a friend for Te-Te. I said no way, two animals are enough. But before I knew it, we both have started making trips to animal shelters scouting out a potential new boyfriend for Te-Te. I don't know, I still have mixed feelings about it. It is really nice only having two animals. But I visit the shelter and see all those poor dogs and think, well, maybe......

I guess we'll see.