Charlie Long

VERY SAD NEWS (7.10.2012)

We were all very sorry to hear that the very beautiful Charlie went to Rainbow Bridge on 7th October.

She was much loved and will be greatly missed by her family and friends.

Tribute to Charlie 9th October 2012

My lovely Naughty Charlie went to the bridge Sunday 07.10.12 very suddenly at 17.30.

Charlie came into our lives nearly 5 years ago and there was never a dull moment with her. 
She’d had a very bad start to life and we hope we made up for it.

We took her everywhere with us, and she loved her caravan holidays. To this day Ray never forgets the first time away with her when he had to chase her up the frosty field at 05.00 in the morning in just his dressing gown and slippers as Charlie being Charlie, she would not come back.

We were hoping to have her for one more day, but she got worse so I had to call the vet out. I could not see my Charlie girl suffer, and I stayed with her right to the end just holding her and telling her how much I loved her.

We are still in shock. Only 4 weeks ago she was running on the beach having a wonderful time and now she’s at Rainbow Bridge.

Charlie was a dog in a million loved by so many.  I am so glad she came into our lives but, not long enough. I would have had her 5 Years on 17th November.

Christmas won’t be the same without Charlie. She made Christmas for us as she just loved all her Christmas presents and her Christmas dinner.

My Ray asked me to add this. It’s from him; he wrote this for Charlie:

Naughty Charlie Girl
She made us laugh, Curse and cry.
Now we’ve had to say Goodbye
RIP
xxx

I said to her “Now Charlie you must be naughty at the bridge don’t let me down. Show the other dogs some of your naughty ways”.

These are some of the last pictures I took of her – on her back as normal.

Thank you IRR for giving me the honour to be Charlie’s Slave and owners. We were so proud of her when she won the cups at the IRR show 2011 and she looks so proud as well.

RIP my sweet girl we loved you so much. Life will never been the same without your naughty ways.

Sweet Dreams Naughty Charlie girl. You will always be in our hearts

Love

Maggie & Ray
Xxx

HISTORY

CHARLIE is a lovely approximately 3-year-old lady. Unfortunately, she needed to have a couple of teeth removed, possibly because she was hit by a car or even kicked. She was, initially, very sad.

IN HER NEW HOME

Lucky Charlie has gone to live with another IRR dog, Daisy, and they are getting along very well together.

Apparently, poor Daisy kept getting humped by her but Daisy could jump on the bed out of the way as, at first, Charlie could not get up there as her hind legs were a bit weak. She has now managed it and, on the way to the vets for her tooth op, she got in the car without help.

Maggie says ” She has her feet under the table already. She has pinched the best dog bed and beheaded Daisy’s teddy but today, while she was at the vets, Daisy, who never chews up things (Miss Goody Two Shoes) beheaded the duck that Charlie came with.”

After her op, Charlie had a good night’s sleep. The next morning, she went for a small walk then wanted breakfast which was cooked to order!!! Scrambled egg and pasta. She was still a bit wobbly but seemed happier. No doubt her teeth must have been painful for her. The vets say it may take her a bit longer to be back to normal as she was so under nourished and does not have the body fat to fight back with.

Maggie says “She is such a trusting dog, considering what she has been through, all she does when you speak to her is wag her tail”.

UPDATE ON CHARLIE AFTER 3 WEEKS

Maggie, her forever mum says “We have had Charlie 3 weeks this Saturday and she is turning out to be a very good girl and has put a smile back on Daisy’s face. She has also stopped humping Daisy, much to Daisy’s delight!”.

“I don’t really know were to start about her !!!

She loves all the toys and one of the favourite postions is on her back with the toys in her paws but she spends a lot of time chilling out on her back anyway”.

“The vet did say she may have been hit by a car or kicked because of her teeth. We do wonder because of her reactions when you call her although I know dogs do have selective hearing when called. We did get her hearing and eye’s tested at the vets, just in case, but the vet said all is well. I thought I would give her the benefit of the doubt.

Charlie looks like her eyes and ears do not respond at the same time. When you give her a treat she takes it very gently but her mouth is not lined up with your hand and she looks sideways at you.

Also when she walks towards you she looks a bit spaced out as if she is on dope !!! bless her.

She is so funny the way she talks to you. Daisy talks as well, so it’s funny when they both start, which is normally first thing in the morning. It sounds like they are having a conversation with each other.

We were told she may not be completely house trained but so far there have been no accidents at all and she is very good being left in the day. Charlie does not move things round in the way Daisy likes to, which I am pleased to say, Daisy has started to do again. Also Daisy has not hidden under the hedge in the back garden since we have had Charlie.

We were told Charlie may be a bit food aggressive but, again, so far so good. She is very good with food and so is Daisy. You can pick her food bowl up and put your hand in the bowl with food in there and she does not growl at all. Charlie did try and take a chewy out of Daisy’s mouth but Daisy would not let go and there were no grumbles at all over that”.

“Charlie was in the garden the other day (she does love being in the garden come rain or shine) and it was a bit quiet. I wondered were she was as she cannot get out of the garden and I knew she had to be somewhere. I went to have a look and she was standing on top of the log pile at the top of the garden looking very pleased with herself. She could not have done that when we first had her as her back legs would not have let her climb up there.

Last Saturday, I thought I would have a bit of a lie in for a change until 8am but Charlie had other ideas. We always open the patio door early so the dogs can go out if they want to. First it was next door’s cat that got chased then I heard her barking, and I didn’t know what she was barking at. She would not stop and as it was early and I didn’t want to upset the neighbours, I jumped out of bed, grabbed my dressing gown, and ran up the garden. She had found a bumble bee and was trying to get hold of it. I took her in then I had to rescue the poor bee.

She loves hers walks very much and she gets very excited when you pick her lead up. She hardly pulls on the lead at all now and she is getting much better with the horses and cows. We did manage to let her off the lead, for the first time, last weekend where it was safe. She was not too bad but we would not let her off all the time yet.

Everyone who has met her say what a lovely dog she is and we are very pleased with her. She is a very gentle, loving and laid back dog so thanks IRR for another excellent dog”.

UPDATE APRIL 09 – THE AMUSING ANTICS OF CHARLIE

Maggie said,“We have just come back from our Easter break in the caravan and Charlie did not let me down !!!

1st. We were walking in the high street in Whitstable and Ray went in a shop. I stayed outside with the girls and Charlie thought she would have a lay down right in the middle of the pavement and would she get up – NO. Good job she had her harness on, people were laughing at me trying to get her up.

2nd. We were half way round the walk we were doing in lovely grounds and we came to a stile. Daisy scrambled through and Charlie tried but got stuck. She reversed out and then just lay down as much as to say ‘I can’t get through there’ so I had to push and Ray had to pull. The same thing happened at the next stile.

3rd. Sitting in the pub garden and there were ducks on the pond. She was barking and trying to get to them. Then a cat jumped over the wall. Well poor Ray – I saw the legs on his chair go in the air but he managed to hang on to her and the chair did not go over and yes I was laughing, he wasn’t. Don’t know why!

4th Just finished an 11 mile walk and we were walking down a country lane, the girls were hot and Charlie spotted a very big muddy puddle and before Ray could say NO she was laying down in it looking very pleased with herself.

The one of them in the pub garden is not the one with the ducks and cat but Daisy enjoyed hunting in the garden while Charlie took it easy. And Charlie enjoyed her dip in the sea it was a lovely warm day.

The girls were quite tired after their long walk.

But we all had a good time.”

LATER THAT MONTH……

We have vertical blinds in what we call our sun room. Daisy loves lying in there at night she is a real night owl – she looks out watching for anything that moves. Charlie loves her bed too much but last night next door’s cat walked by and Charlie was barking like mad. We let her out so she could see but the cat had gone.

An hour later we were asleep and we heard a very big bang which woke us up and we wondered what on earth had happened. We jumped out of bed, Daisy ran out with one of her furry toys in her mouth. She was trembling and we found Charlie looking a bit dazed. She must have tried to run through the shut door as we also have a fly blind on there as well that we use when the door is open. I think she thought (knowing how thick Charlie can be) that Ray had opened the doors and pulled the fly blind across. I don’t think her eyesight is that good either.

Charlie had made a good job of breaking them, the track at the top was all twisted and one of the panels was down and the beads from the bottom had come off. So there was Ray at 3 am in the morning trying to pull them back again.

Poor Charlie looked a bit sorry for herself. Ray sent her into the lounge. I said ‘it’s not her fault she thought the door was open’. I went to check her out and gave her a cuddle and brought her back into our bedroom and then she got into her own bed. I bet this morning she has one big headache. Tonight after her dinner she looked at me and I noticed she did have a small graze over her eye – and Ray did eventually manage to mend the blinds.