One year later:
Greetings to our friends on the East Coast. All is well with Charley and I. The move across country was pretty smooth, and Charley has adapted to California living!
Charley is nothing like I would have ever imagined when I got him a year ago. He's not the runner I was looking for. He's only a sprinter, and in fact, he doesn't even like being outside if it's warm and sunny. He's wicked smart, but not as easily trained as you might think -- his stubborn streak almost always gets in the way, and when he's not stubborn, he's easily distracted. When I first got him he never barked. In fact, for several days, I wondered if he had a voice. Now he's a chatty boy -- barking at buses and squirrels, and talking up a storm with me, with a considerable vocabulary of groans, sighs, and other unlikely noises.
He's not at all aloof, like he was when we met. But he is a great actor and can do aloof if it suits his needs. He wasn't at all territorial when I got him. Now he stands watch over our house with admirable vigilance. And for weeks, he took little interest in food or toys. Now he demands to sample anything that I eat, and he spends much of his day herding the toys around the house, seemingly demonstrating a canine OCD quality with his exact positioning of several toys in a line or a pile. He's never satisfied with a toy unless it's exactly where he put it. If I try to relocate one, it disrupts his grand plan, and he intercepts and starts all over again.
He's a surprise in ALMOST every way. What has always been consistent is his sweet and gentle soul, his ease around children and other dogs, and his extraordinary skills as a snuggler. He gives out kisses freely, takes snacks gently with his lips and front teeth, and loves to sit on your feet or have physical contact in any way possible. Charley welcomes rubs from anyone and makes friends easily. Everywhere we go, people ask: "Is he still a puppy?!" No one believes he's full grown. Apparently Charley drank from the fountain of youth!
We're about to start Agility 3. He was such a confident ham in Agility 1, but Agility 2 was hard because he hates the tunnel. This brave pup who was leading the class one week, became the class clown the next week. At the sight of tunnel, he'd simply starting running crazy laps around the room. Or some days he'd pee on the floor right in front of the tunnel. We're going to continue working.
He seems to have fully recovered from Lyme's disease, and since then, the worst thing that's happened is a nasty skunking he got in our back yard a couple weeks ago. The poor boy got it right in the face!
Meeting Charley on the farm last July was life changing for me. He's my first dog, and yet I can't imagine how I ever made it through four decades without one.
I hope everything is well there. I am grateful for what you do, and the ways in which you change lives for the four-legged and two-legged alike.
The latest photo of Charley -- his "headshot" as spokesdog for the new downtown Park in Los Angeles. Yes, it has a dog park!
-Thor and Charley
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