Meet Charley Bear, the newest member of our family. It is official now, as we signed his adoption papers this weekend from the Doodle Rescue Collective, Inc. organization.
Charley is quite the man. He is a cross of a Bouvier de Flanders and a Standard Poodle. He is 4 years and 9 months of age, and has had 3 previous “owners”. I loathe the word owner, because we don’t own dogs, we are their guardians. I understand that the breeder donated an entire litter of these puppies to the state prison in Kentucky where the inmates raise puppies to graduate to therapy/service dogs at the age of one year. Charley, formerly Charcoal (first name was Cole), didn’t make the cut for this kind of work life. Seventy percent of all dogs that are evaluated for this program never make it to the next level. It really doesn’t surprise me because Bouviers are very prey driven, i.e., forgets everything and chases a squirrel, bird, rabbit, etc., so loses focus to what he is supposed to be doing).
So far, Charley has fit right in. He loves watching TV if the movie, series, etc. has a dog in it. He has even checked the back of the TV on both sides to see if there is a dog there. He loves it at movie time, when we are both sitting on the sectional and he comes up and will lay beside or on top of one of us or take turns if he is thinking about it.
Charley and Katy (the queen) haven’t decided whether to be friends yet, but are courteous to one another. They have had 3 little spats the past week, but nothing serious. We think they will get along just fine. Katy knows she is numero uno, but they are both showered with a lot of love.
