My Dog Charlie

It seems I'm in the mood for rambling today so I must tell you about my dog Charlie. He was 9 months old when we got him in August and had spent his whole life in kennels he had been the last of a litter and as each new litter came into the kennels so he was overlooked in favour of the smaller puppies. I had been talking to my friend Joy about wanting a dog and I knew I wanted a Cavalier King Charles because of their very laid back nature the fact that they are very good and tolerant with children and they also are very good with other animals, but when I looked on the Internet I was amazed at the price £500 to £600 so my friend said lets go to the animal shelter and have a look there.

Well I was so surprised to see so many saffordshire terriers who had been abandoned quite young apparently it's the idea that they are a macho symbols and in fact are a soft as butter that gets them thrown out. It's the people who are looking for a status symbol and find themselves with a dog that would lick you to death before it harms anyone that end up not wanting the dog.

Anyway I saw 3 or 4 dogs that I thought might be suitable to come and live we us taking into account my two cats and my two grandchildren who I look after, however when we went to register and mentioned the dogs I had seen, I was told in each case there was a very good reason why that particular dog would not be suitable. The first one had behavioural problems (although it looked pretty normal when I stroked it) the second one was too nervous ( again it looked a pretty calm dog when I saw it) the third one had lots of hang ups ( I was by now beginning to think my judgement of dogs was well rusty) the kennel assistant then pointed to a dog being walk outside and said that dog would be good for you she came from a good home and had very little problems ( it was 10 years 0ld) We were then told "you know all the dogs in here have problems! they wouldn't be in here if they were nice well adjusted animals , they would be in a nice home with a nice family, most of them are here because they have problems). Well that's enough to put even the brave heart off no wonder the rescue centres have problems finding homes for all their animals.

So my friend who has had lots of dogs cats and stray birds over the years phoned the puppy kennels where she got her dogs from and yes she had a Cavalier slightly cheaper because he was 9 months old £490 still beyond my purse however some bargaining was done by my friend and we got Charlie £350 we had to raid every moneybox in the house and the cats have to wait another 6 months or so before we can afford their teeth cleaning trip to the vets but it has been so worthwhile because not only does Charlie give us lots of laughs and shows us great devotion but he has helped me keep the weight off and exercise my way to fitness through our daily walks.