For the Love of a Dog

The Life & Times of Sir Charles

I don’t even know where to begin this story. I periodically reflect on it and I think I’m a little crazy for feeling the way I do. This is a tale of a very special dog. Yes, I know they all are, but this one got thrown into a really tough emotional whirlwind and survived, giving even more unconditional love to those in need around him.

Many of you who know me also know Sir Charles. Charles is a miniature Dachshund that came into our lives about 8 1/2 years ago. He almost didn’t.

First, I need to set several things straight. Charles was never REALLY my dog, he was my son’s. Charles hasn’t lived with me since my wife became sick around 5 years ago. I try and spend as much time with him as I can, but it often feels like visitation time with an estranged child. That being said, let me give the backstory about Charles……excuse me, Sir Charles.

It was June of 2011. My son had been doing research about getting a dog. As he does with everything, he performed extensive searches, read numerous reports, studies and comments about the dog he was going to invest. Much more diligent and extensive than I would ever have the patience. Now he was no child at this point. He was nearly 22 years old and wrapping up his college degree at Drexel University in Philadelphia. He was living home at the time and wanted to have a dog as a companion.

The summer before he had been through a health scare in which he was diagnosed with a rare salivary gland cancer and had to undergo surgery that was not easy and has left its permanent mark on him physically and emotionally. I bring this up for a reason I will shortly explain.

Jeremy had been talking about getting a dog for months, but one never materialized. My wife and I began to assume it wasn’t going to happen and he would eventually lose his momentum in obtaining a canine. Well……we were wrong.

I had a dog while growing up in my teens, as I blogged about earlier. My wife however, never had a dog. They never had a cat or bird or a goldfish as far as I knew. The family was a bit anti-pet. That being said, my wife wanted nothing to do with a dog coming into our home. She didn’t care if Jeremy was to be its care taker, no dog was coming into her house. They were smelly, dirty creatures, who had no business living in the homes of humans. OK, maybe that was extreme, but not really.

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Jeremy had found the dog he wanted and he was going to Pennsylvania to pick it up and bring him home. It was finally going to happen. Well, it was going to happen according to Jeremy, but not according to his mother, my wife.

I’m not sure if I should be telling this part of the story, but I think it’s important to help appreciate what follows. The night before my son was bringing the dog home she told me through tears that I could not allow him to bring this dog into the house under any circumstances. She couldn’t and didn’t want to deal with it. I mean, she was near hysteria.

I had to respect her feelings, plus I knew I had to live with her and she would not be a happy camper if a dog was roaming around her home. So the next morning I went to work trying to devise a plan to reach a mutual solution. I really didn’t have one.

So I did what I thought best and researched every piece of negative info about Dachshunds I could find online. I printed them out and then forwarded them to my son. Texting wasn’t a real thing yet at that point so I sent him an email to show him what a mistake it would be to bring this dog home. I told him how upset his mom was of the concept of having a dog come into the home. It was a no go. He could get a dog when he moved out on his own.

I thought I did my job successfully. I stated my case and more importantly his mother’s case strongly. How could he go against us?

While many of you know some of the story, there is much more. I will tell you all about that in my next blog.

Sunshine always!!!