meet charlie...

meet charlie! he is the newest member of our family. we adopted charlie from the lifeline animal project, a great organization that rescues animals from kill shelters and finds volunteers to care for them until they are able to go to a forever home. the people that give their time and energy to these types of orgnaizations amaze me! charlie was found wondering in the woods and wasn't in very good shape. most seriously, he had heart worms, a condition that is easy to prevent but difficult to treat. we were lucky that lifeline rescued him and placed him with a wonderful man who cared for him through the treatment process, which takes months, before he could be ready for adoption. he treated him like he would his own dog, even though he knew he couldn't keep him. we are so grateful to him because we saw this beautiful dog at one of their adoption events and immediately fell in love!

charlie is an australian shepard/border collie mix, which is the kid of dog i had growing up. if you are familar with these dogs, they are very smart. they bond strongly with their owners as they are bred to be working dogs and follow commands. charlie seems to have had very few lessons in commands before ending up at lifeline. he is very sweet and willing to learn but he definitely needs more training and some redirection for those sheparding tendencies... other than "look how i can make the chickens run!" or "i must stand here and stare at the cats for an hour to make sure nothing happens to them (or until they move and then look how i can make them run!)". in the mean time we are enjoying a dog who likes to get lots of hugs, has endless patience for the kids, loves walks and meeting other dogs! we took him to the farmer's market this sunday and he was so excited to meet everyone he saw (and try to steal a few snacks). we have another dog who is very elderly, and it has been difficult watching her go down hill so suddenly. charlie is very respectful of her position in our house and it is really nice for all of us to have some young dog energy again... chicken chasing and all.

plus, how can you really resist those eyes?