Charlie’s Origin Story- 2012

My brother, boyfriend and I were driving back to our house in the Redland just outside of the Everglades from running errands. This area is known as a major dog dumping site. Unfortunately, people think that this area is an ideal place to dump their unwanted pets. Some think because it is far enough away from the city, they don’t think their dogs can find their way back, and others think that it is close enough to the Everglades that they can either survive on their own or become gator bait. Others, probably hope that one of the residents in the area will take their dog in. Either way, we encountered many dogs in the Redland wandering around that we had taken in and found homes for.

Back to the story. While we were driving back, I saw something small in the middle of the road and as we got closer, we realized it was a puppy! He was cowering, shaking and too scared to move. I pulled over and put the car in park and Danny and I got out to assess the situation. We knew we had to get the puppy to safety before it got hit by a car. We tried to get closer to the dog but anytime we got within a few feet he would dart in random directions. This was a reasonably busy road so this put the dog and us in a dangerous situation. Miami drivers often do not move out of the way to avoid hitting wildlife. This tends to be a culture thing as many are descendants or came directly from countries that are overrun with strays. Strays that could be dangerous, carry disease, kill their livestock, and have other negative effects on humans. This is not to say I agree with not doing everything in your power to protect wildlife and other animals, this is more to say that behaviors are sometimes not completely black and white. To be honest, I also was noticing that a lot of the vehicles going by were not trying very hard to avoid hitting me or Danny. We quickly re-grouped as this was becoming less safe the longer we were out on the road. Since Danny has this magical way in calming skittish or injured animals and being able to get close to them we agreed that Danny would work getting the puppy to trust him enough to get him into our car while I kept a look out and prevented cars from hitting them. This meant I stood in the road staring down the jerk drivers that wanted to play chicken with me- luckily I always won. It probably helped that I also had my phone out like I was recording them. Danny was eventually able to get close enough to pick up the small dog and we brought him home. He was given a flea bath and was brought to a vet clinic to see if he was micro-chipped which he was not. We had him looked over and he was given a clean bill of health so we set out to use Facebook to find him a forever home as we had done with quite a few other strays we had previously found.

At this time we had Remington, Kiara and another dog named Reginald Cole. Reginald was the dog we found right before Charlie. Reginald consumed our lives for a little over a year as he had hydrocephalus which is fluid on the brain which caused brain damage. We were always on the run taking him to his main vet or neurologist and monitoring him as he also had a multitude of other issues that we had to keep on top of. Due to this, we didn’t fully commit ourselves to finding this latest dog a home. We basically put up two posts on Facebook asking if anyone wanted him and that was it. We decided to name him Charles Harrington because he seemed to be more of a reserved, proper dog at first. He was and still is very uneasy around raised voices or loud noises even when it is in fun. If you talk too directly or sternly to him, he will shut down and freeze or hide under the nearest piece of furniture. After a few months Danny and I talked and decided to make Charlie a permanent addition to the house. He was small, didn’t eat much, was quiet and calm (at the time); it didn’t seem like having him around really added any extra work or strain on our finances so why not keep him? We justified that it would be too traumatic for him to be re-homed after living with us after several months considering how we had found him.

After the decision to keep him was made, Charlie began coming out of his shell. He became much more playful and more vocal! We joke that he was on his best behavior to trick us into keeping him! He is a good dog, has developed a bit of a Napoleon complex that we constantly have to check him for and he would literally give his life to protect anyone in the family. One of the worst habits Charlie developed was his obsessive licking of his fur siblings eyes, ears, and mouths. This bad habit has led to all of the dogs getting conjunctivitis and needing treatment; because of this, Charlie’s demon name is Pestilence, spreader of disease. Even with Charlie’s bad habits, we love him and are so glad we didn’t find the time to find him another home!

Want to meet Charlie’s Siblings? Click the name to meet his sisters Kiara and Emma, or his big brother Remington!

Charlie is also the inspiration behind the DIY Canopy Bed. Your pets might like to have one too!