Charlie
A little over a year ago I had it in my head to write about each of my four dogs on the blog. Then one of them, Mini, died and I just never got around to doing it. As of last week, we’re back up to four again and the idea popped back into my head. So here’s the first of four posts introducing my dogs. Say hello to Charlie.
Charlie the Maltese
Charlie has been with us for going on 8 years. My wife and I had adopted a mixed Pomeranian, Angel, from the vet clinic on the US military compound in Seoul a couple of years before. A few months later we had taken in a Pug, Butch, from an old lady who had more dogs than she could handle. Both of them had been stolen from us (along with several other dogs in the neighborhood) a month or so before. My wife had been devastated.
Hearing about our loss from my brother-in-law, his boss asked if we’d be interested in taking a Maltese off of his hands. He had bought it for his children less than a year before and they had not been taking care of it. Worse, they were often abusing it. He offered it to us free of charge.
Charlie was a pitiful thing when we first brought him home. Just over a year old, he was quite small and underfed. As a result of the abuse from the children, the slightest movement of a hand or foot terrified him. He spent much of the first week cowering every time someone moved. But he eventually figured out that no one was going to beat him and settled in.
Charlie hadn’t been properly trained, so every day we were cleaning up his mess. Since we had a nice patio area (surprisingly uncommon in Seoul these days) I taught him to go outside like we did with my dogs back in America when I was a kid (something I regret now). He was a quick learner. We taught him several minor tricks, which over the years have entertained our friends and neighbors.
One of the first tricks we taught him was to sit. From there, we taught him how to stand on his hind legs at the command of ‘up’. I suppose my mistake was always telling him to sit before standing. Over time, he stopped sitting altogether. These days, when you say ‘sit’, he usually goes up on his legs instead.
The commands that Charlie understands are a mix of English and Korean. Tell him ‘sit’, he’ll do it. Tell him in Korean and he won’t. On the other hand, tell him ‘eat’, and he’ll just look at you. Tell him in Korean and he’ll run over to the food bowl, growling.
Charlie is as lazy as a cat. He used to like to run all over the place, but since a few years back he prefers to lie around all day. Occasionally he’ll show some of his old spark when I throw bits of dog food in the living room which he chases down and eats. He doesn’t like rain. Let him out on a rainy day and he’ll stay under the overhang of the roof, avoiding wet patches as best he can. If he sees a syringe (which we use to squirt medicine in the dogs’ mouths) or hears the distinctive sound of a Korean pack of dog medicine, he looks for the nearest place to hide.
Charlie has had several surgeries over the years, so he’s no stranger to medicine. He’s had four surgeries to remove urinary stones and once, as the ultimate result of a misdiagnosis by a new vet we went to after a move, had to have one of his kidneys removed. Though we had to keep him on a special diet for a long time and had to be extremely careful about keeping food away from him, these days we’re able to be more liberal with what we feed him.
Charlie isn’t as demanding for attention as some dogs. He has a few spots he likes to lay around at and is content to be by himself until one of us lays down. When we lie down on a sofa or the bed, he used to always want to curl up under a chin, or in the crook of an arm. These days, he prefers to stretch out on the pillows above our heads, or on the arm of the sofa. As long as he’s healthy, which these days he is, he’s a low-maintenance dog.
Charlie gets along with the others, though he’s a bit grumpy about it sometimes. When we first brought Mini in, he seemed a little frightened of her. With the others, he’s been mostly nonchalant. Once in a while he does get jealous if we give too much attention to the others, but they are much worse than he is when it comes to jealousy. Unfortunately, he’s the most aggressive when it comes to strangers. When we order chicken or something, we have to make sure Charlie is nowhere near the door when the delivery person comes. Sometimes when he’s outside, he’ll suddenly charge someone walking by, barking loudly. He never bites, just goes through the motions. But he always makes them jump!