Earlier in my break, I had the good fortune of getting asked to puppy sit for one blissful week. Charlie Comerford (or Charles, as he prefers to be called) is a bomb squad dog dropout. He's a yellow lab and originally was adopted to be trained up for bomb sniffing duty, but for some reason was rejected and put up for adoption. Andy's friend, Brett, adopted him. Brett, who is newly divorced, deals with his feelings by buying new and expensive toys (a Mercedes and a speedboat, to name a few), traveling, drinking to excess, and dating online. In this particular circumstance, these habits were very advantageous to me. One of Brett's new toys was Charles, and he couldn't watch Charles when he went to Las Vegas for Christmas.
So I agreed to take Charlie, and I quickly realized that this was no ordinary puppy. This was pure perfection with little floppy ears and puppy breath. On our first afternoon together, I decided to school him in the finer arts of napping---and he passed with resounding success. We snuggled together in Andy's Murphy bed and Charles put his little muzzle on my neck. We fell instantly in love. I had him on Christmas day all by myself, and I used the opportunity to teach him to sit, stay, and lay down.
I have been planning for ages on getting a puppy for myself as soon as I graduate school, but this was the first puppy that I've had to be responsible for all by myself. It was heaven. Charlie and I were inseparable. This is key: Dutch, Andy's golden retriever, loves him best. When Andy leaves the room, Dutch cries. When Andy gets out of the boat to set up duck decoys, Dutch's eyes follow him and he whines to go, too. Andy says Dutch should be enough puppy for me, but I need one that loves me best. When I told Charlie to lay down, he did. When Andy told Charlie to lay down, he yawned. Like I said: puppy perfection.
Charlie sleeps through the night, is potty trained, and has the most adorable little smiley face. I knew the whole week that I was growing dangerously attached. We were napping together and going on long walks. He'd sit on my lap and snuggle and even let me pull him up and cradle him like a baby. All of the qualities I wanted in a puppy were possessed by that little yellow puppy.
That is not to say, of course, that there weren't moments that my perfect puppy was a little less than perfect. I spent at least four days trying to teach him to shake to absolutely no avail. To this day, even though I see him frequently and always try to get him to do it, he will not shake. He doesn't even seem to realize that he should lift his paw. I have to pull it up from the floor every time. Also, on our last day together, I walked back in to the backyard, carrying a ton of things when Charles ran up to me. He was jumping (a quality I can't seem to break him of). I leaned down to pet him, thinking that he wouldn't jump if I were down on his level. Bad idea. He jumped up, hitting me square in the face. My lip was sandwiched between his little sharp puppy tooth and my bottom teeth. It swelled up like a balloon and gave me a fish face look.
I knew that Brett was coming back, but nothing could have prepared me. It was late in the evening, and I had started to think that maybe he wouldn't return until the following day--which suited me just fine. Andy and I had fed the dogs while Andy was making dinner for us, and so after they ate, we let them out so that they would have time to use the bathroom and leave us alone while we were eating. After dinner, Andy went downstairs to let the dogs back in. When he came back up, he said that Brett was home and Charlie was gone. I knew the day had to come, but I was still heartbroken.
Okay, well, maybe Charles isn't puppy PERFECTION, but he does come pretty close. Charlie has made me make my own new year's resolution: when I go back to school, I'm picking a breeder and I'm going to find out what kind of deposit is necessary for me to secure first pick in their spring litter. Beginning on January 1st, I decided that this year would be MY year--my law school graduation, my first job, passing the bar (I'm thinking optimistically here), an engagement, maybe (just maybe) a wedding, and new puppy. I have a new camera to document every development as it occurs, and my newly developed love for Charles has made me decide that a puppy will have to jump to the top of my list of 2011 developments.
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