Who knew? How Charley and TV got to be best buddies got started rather subtlety. We were watching a movie that had a dog in it periodically. No matter where Charley was with his snoozing, i.e., sofa, floor, dog bed, etc. he would hear a dog bark and advance on the TV screen. He would then sit very erect in front of the screen and let out a muffled bark. When the dog on TV got more active, so did Charley. He then, advanced on the TV with a stronger bark, and then pranced to each side of the screen looking for the culprit. After not finding the culprit behind the TV, then he looked at us on the sectional as if to ask, “come on folks, what did you do with the dog.”?
This was the perfect set up to see if this was a coincidence or Charley paid a lot of attention to TV. So, next, we tried a western with horses. He absolutely loved, loved, loved the horses. In fact, he couldn’t get enough of the horses. He stood up on his hind legs and barked furiously walking back and forth on 2 legs, and then advancing on the screen. We thought maybe it was just horses and dogs. So, we thought we would try something with more animals in it like “Yellowstone”. Well, Charley went bananas over the bison, wolves, and any animal doing something. He got rather aggressive and vocal with so many animals, especially when the bison bulls were fighting over mating rights, or the wolves were chasing down an elk. He would charge the screen and then stop suddenly to turn around and look at us like “aren’t you going to do something”? Yes, we felt rather addicted at this point, mainly because we couldn’t believe what we were witnessing. Charley acted like he understood what was going on.
The last event he watched on the big screen was the Kentucky Derby. We all watched a few races. When the horses left the gate with the big gang, Charley raised up on his hind legs and let out a mighty bark throwing his head back with ears flying. He would advance or rush the screen barking furiously until the horses stopped. When the sportscasters (3 of them) talked at the table to comment about the horses, etc. before the race, Charley would sit and focus on whoever was talking at the time, going from one person to the next. He watched all the races except the Kentucky Derby. The poor lad was tuckered out and slept soundly until the re-run of the race.
Actually, we miss a lot of what we are all watching because we have so much joy watching the big furry black dog.