After our faithful Cocker Spaniel Zeke passed, we were devastated. Zeke had a particular personality and wisdom that went beyond dog sense. His passing was really hard on us, especially Chris, who had a very special bond with him. Our friends in Texas, Deana and Randy, also lost their Cocker about the same time. Deana was looking for a new Cocker Spaniel and she found a breeder in Texas and fell in love with two of them, but could only have one. After we talked, I started trying to convince Chris that we needed another doggie. She felt it was too soon. She wasn’t ready. I asked Deana to send me a picture of the one she didn’t pick. Well, that was it. Chris fell in love.
Chris, our son Christian and I went to Dulles Airport to fetch our new puppy, arriving from Texas. He was only 8 weeks old and took to us right away. On the way home, he laid on Christian’s shoulder, looking at Chris in the backseat. They decided his registered name Neiman Barkus didn’t fit, so they renamed him “Charlie” because, as Chris and Christian agreed, “He looked like a Charlie.” When we got him home, he ran and played in the yard for a bit and seemed to adjust to his new family really well. It didn’t take long for us to grow really attached to Charlie, especially since Christian graduated from law school, passed the bar and moved out—an empty nester thing for us, you know.
We knew we wanted to travel, but we didn’t like the idea of leaving Charlie with doggie day care. Chris enrolled Charlie in obedience school. He really took to it. Charlie, we found, was very competitive and always positioned himself to be the best in his class. Time and again he would somehow connect with the instructor (tapping his paw, making eye contact, whining) so he could be the one to demonstrate the most recent teaching. Well, Charlie was certified as a Service Dog—he was really proud of his red Service Dog vest, although we don’t use it very often. From then on, Charlie could travel with us wherever we went. It seems like other dogs can’t resist him. We were at a restaurant when someone’s ridgeback ran after Charlie. I swung him around in his leash and Chris caught him in the air to save him from the attack.
We were on the coast in Maine when a shepherd came running after Charlie, knocking his owner down and dragging him on the road. Then there was the time in Georgia when Charlie made friends with Benji, Nancy from Winchester’s long-time companion. Charlie is also the one that pulled me down the brick steps for my faceplant on the landing—he did come back and sit beside me till help came. But overall, everyone that passes by when Charlie is with us, wants to pet him. And he wants them to pet him. He’s become kind of a celebrity with The American Chronicles, a part of the family as well as the ministry. Galatians 5:22 says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith.” Charlie brings a lot of love and joy to our travels. And that’s the tale of Charlie the Service Dog!
