Charlie and the Apples

By Linda Spurlin

Some of you will remember Charlie. Charlie is an older German Short Haired Pointer. Charlie's purpose in life is to fetch. He will fetch to the point of driving you insane. You throw it, he brings it back. Over and over and over longer then your arm can last. If you ignore him, he barks at you until you throw it again out of desperation. This is most likely why Charlie found himself at the local Humane Society in need of a new home. Charlie is a sweetie, but his fetish with retrieving is nonstop, drive you nuts, annoying.

Today Charlie and his two buddies found the gate open at their home, and took a stroll at a dead run through the neighborhood. The other two dogs tired of this after awhile and went home. Not Charlie. His mistress drove up and down the streets and called and called. No Charlie.

Charlie wasn't coming home because he had found a new friend! He found an elderly gentleman in a hot tub under an apple tree. However in Charlie's eyes, this marvelous tree was covered in red balls....just right for fetching! And the best part was that the red balls were just laying all over the ground waiting for some nice dog to retrieve them! So he brought the man one and dropped it into the hot tub with him. The man threw it out. Charlie dropped it back in. The man threw it out. Charlie dropped it back in.

The man finally tired of this and tried to ignore him. Charlie thought maybe the man just wanted a different ball, so he brought another apple and dropped it in the hot tub. And another and another and another. Finally the man decided the hot tub was going to be full of apples unless he got dressed and took Charlie home, and so he did.

I thought those of you who knew Charlie would get a kick out of Charlie's day of freedom, and those of you who don't know him may get a smile out of it anyway. It certainly is a 'tail of make due with whats available'.