Another New Old Dog...Charlie

It was inevitable that we'd get another dog after Lizzie died so suddenly just a little more than a month ago.

I'm okay with dogs. I actually like them. But, Maggie, our Golden two dogs ago, was my idea of a perfect pet. I adored her and, when she died from cancer, I would have been content to end my pet-owning life with her.

But, Evie really wanted another Golden so we applied with Delaware Valley Golden Retriever Rescue for the privilege of rescuing one of their dogs.

What a process!

We had to have a home visit similar to what you'd go through to adopt a human child.

We passed.

A few weeks later we took home the dog we called Lizzie.

She was absolutely beautiful and she was playful and sweet but she wasn't a cuddler.

She was in the peak of health until she got sick with an autoimmune form of anemia and she was gone quickly.

When Lizzie died, we contacted DVGRR to let them know Lizzie was gone. And, not really that long ago we told them that we were interested in another dog.

Because we live in a condo, we are limited in the sort of dog we can adopt from DVGRR.

There were two dogs available to us at this moment. Both were Golden mixes. Both had issues.

We were satisfied enough with a 7 year old male named Charlie.

Charlie's smallish, even for a Golden mix, about 55 pounds.

He's extremely shy.

His paper work says that he had been confiscated from an owner who was severely abusing him. Charlie was taken to a rescue in Texas that was flooded by the hurricane last summer.  DVGRR took in some dogs from Texas and some from the hurricane in Florida.

Charlie is still affected by his memory of the abuse. He's particularly fearful of men.

When we met him, he warmed up to Evie within ten minutes or so and allowed me to pet him gently after about twice that time.

He's a very nice looking dog...not in Lizzie's league, but he is a looker.

I'll be perfectly content if he ends up being Evie's dog and if I'm an afterthought in his life.

Dennis, the guy who showed us the dogs was anxious for us to pick Charlie. Clearly, he had a soft spot for Charlie, who'd been at the rescue for nearly 4 months...a long time by DVGRR standards. In fact, just the day before our visit, Charlie's adoption fee had been cut by more than half.

And, when it seemed clear that Evie, whose decision it was, was considering Charlie, Dennis offered him to us on a foster basis for 30 days. He gave us about $60 in free food and free vet care for a month.

We have until the end of February to make a final commitment.

Interestingly, when a dog is adopted from DVGRR, someone from staff takes a picture of the dog and his/her new family. As we were trying to get Charlie posed, about a half dozen workers from the rescue came out toward us and each one said, "Thanks for giving him a chance."

We'll do our best.