Cairn Community

Thank you, pkcrossley, Hillscreek and Sam I Am, for the warm welcome!  Charlie's story is a sad one, but I hope to make up for it a little in his final years with me.  He was bought from a pet store in Portland, Oregon, along with his brother, Percy, by the couple who surrendered him to the shelter last December.   They lost their home last year, perhaps in the wildfires, I was not told the details by the shelter staff.  They were couch-surfing, and could no longer find a place to stay if they had the dogs with them, so they surrendered them.  Sadly, Percy's health was so bad that the shelter euthanized him.  So Charlie lost his home, his brother, and his humans all at once in 2020.  He was adopted, then returned to the shelter a few weeks later for "urinary incontinence", so the shelter did a full work-up on him, and no problems were found, so he was put back up for adoption.  That's when I decided to step in.  I called and made an appointment to take Johnny and Max with me to meet Charlie, and after much tail-wagging and following each other around the "meeting yard" to mark on top of each others' marks, the shelter staff was satisfied that all three of them were compatible, so I filled out the paperwork, paid the adoption fee, and home we came.  That first evening Charlie had one accident in the house, but since then he's been fine, and seems to like the freedom of the doggie doors, on these nice early spring days I will find him standing or laying in the sun, staring down the hill at the neighbor's goings-on, letting the wind bring him the news from the Coast Range forests.  And he likes sleeping on the pillow next to mine in bed, he seems to find the Tempurpedic mattress as comfortable for his old joints as I do.  Odds are he will need arthritis meds at some point, he has virtually no angulation and two luxating patellas, although he does not seem to luxate when he's gaiting, or even when running, but the vet could move them manually during his exam.  These are a couple of the reasons I want to take off his extra weight, his conformation is so bad he needs all the help he can get, poor little guy!  He didn't deserve the cards dealt to him in this life, no dog deserves such challenges, honestly, but he's doing his best with what he's got, and I hope to make these final miles on his road as comfortable, happy, and full of love as I can.

Such a good feel story💕🐾🐾

Lucky Charlie, Lucky you!  

bless you. it is easy to see how 18 months (or 18 days) would leave a cairn-shaped hole. Charlie has everything he ever wanted and congratulations on getting back on the cairn train. hope you all have a glorious time.

Thank you, Brad!  I hope I have Charlie at least as long as Cinder graced our home, and hopefully even longer.  He's a shaggy little black brindle, and from the feel has been clippered his whole life, so, since he has no skin issues, like Cinder did, I'll probably continue that.  He's already crawled under every piece of furniture he can fit under, so I am hoping he takes to earthdog tunnels as readily, if so he can teach Max how to fold up and crawl, and I'll have a couple of good earthdog prospects.  Right now he's about as wide as he is tall, so we'll work on that, though he's an absolute expert at the "aren't I the CUTEST thing?" look when parked under our table at meals.  How DOES one resist those black button eyes?