This is Charlie

He's my dog/fur-baby/companion/my daughters favourite interactive toy and best friend. Of course he's much more than that - he's got to be one of the best dogs ever made! He's 5 years old, almost 6 years now.

Charlie is a black Labrador retriever. We often refer to him as a Labra-stomach, or a stomach on legs. He's obsessed with food. He's got an amazing nose and can sniff food from a mile away. On our walk this morning he found a bag of hot chips (fries) on the side of the road, and had to bring them with us. Unfortunately for him, the bag split as we were crossing the street and the contents spilled everywhere. He didn't get a chance to eat them because of the traffic!

Charlie with his bag of fries he found while out walking this morning.

We got Charlie when he was 10 weeks old. An email was sent around my partners work asking if anyone wanted a puppy. My partner did the fatal thing and forwarded the email onto me. I'm a sucker for animals that need homes! At one stage we had 10 sheep, 5 chickens (these chickens were almost at the chopping block when I told their owners I would take them), 3 cats and one dog. That's a story for another day.

I asked my partner if we could please go and meet this wee puppy that needed a home, so after work that night we went to go and see him. I fell in love with him immediately. He was the most precious puppy. I couldn't understand why the owners were giving him up after 2 weeks of owning him!

Apparently they had a toddler who was afraid of him so they had to give him away. We decided then and there that we'd take him, we would pick him up the next day which was a Friday and we'd have the weekend to settle him in.

On our way home we went to a pet shop and bought a bed, bowl, toys, food, collar, lead. We were so excited! Finally Friday afternoon rolled around and off we went to pick him up. The lady who was re-homing him was visibly upset to have to give away the puppy, but she couldn't keep him with how scared her daughter was by him.

Charlie as a puppy with his favourite toy duck.

Charlie in his new bed.

When we lived in Dunedin (on the East coast of New Zealand) we would drop him at doggy day care once a week. We would also drop him at my partners dads while we were working. His dad also has a black lab and they became good friends. Charlie loved going there each day and he never got stuck for hours on end at home alone.

Now that I'm a SAHM I am home all day with him and he's really good company for my daughter and I. He's also a very good guard dog.

Charlie has a charmed life. He sleeps in the bed (much to my partners dismay), he's walked daily and gets to swim in the lake whenever he wants. If we go away, we find pet friendly accommodation and Charlie gets to go on holiday with us. He's truly part of our pack and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Charlie with our cat. He was much smaller than the cat (Evan) at 10 weeks old.

Charlie and Evan sharing a patch of sun. The cat is much smaller than the dog now!
I think that he's going to be my daughters best friend as she grows up. Charlie has already realised that she's a great source of food, now that she's eating solids. My daughter loves to feed him too! I can see that's going to be a challenge to keep the food in her and away from him!