Meet Charlett, Dog of Destiny!
Charlett is 9 months old! That's right, she's going to be a gargantu-puppy! Eden, her current owner, is a wonderful lady; we talked for about an hour on Thursday afternoon, during which time we discovered that we have a lot of the same thoughts about animals in general. Eden loves Charlett very, very much, so much, in fact, that she's decided that her house is not the best environment for Charlett, who, while being a very calm dog, still needs more time and attention than Eden has available. Hats off to Eden for making such a tough, painful decision, while simultaneously allowing us to adopt Charlett into our lives.
Eden posted the ad for Charlett on Craigslist after much soul-searching, and I saw the ad literally about ten minutes later. I emailed her instantly! It was incredibly serendipitous.
I've always known that we were going to get another dog after Jake died, but I loved Jake too much to rush into anything. I spent months researching dogs, to have a better idea who I wanted to bring into the house. At one point I considered a wolf hybrid, which is a kind of dog I've always wanted, but it turns out they have a very bad track record where children are concerned, and are less ready than a dog to accept a human as alpha. Because of this, it's much easier for them to see a child as potential prey, or as a threat to their place in the pack. For a dog, if you know what you're doing, and you know about pack mentality and architecture, you can be sure a dog understands that your children are the offspring of the alpha wolf, and therefore to be protected and deferred to. As I found out, you can't do this with a wolf hybrid, so that was the end of that.
I'd also looked into Aussie Cattle Dogs, until I found out they're really high-energy, high maintenance dogs, so again, that was out. I'd pretty much settled on a Rottie, as I've always loved their temperments and their size, but we have a problem in that we have two cats, two dogs and a kid. If we wanted a rescue dog, we'd have a huge amount of possibly fruitless training ahead of us to be sure we didn't wake up one morning to dead cats, or worse yet, an injured kid. I wasn't going to go to a breeder when there are so many dogs desperate for good homes, and puppies almost never wind up on the rescue adoption list because they're so cute.
Jake was a German Shepherd/Golden Retriever mix, and I loved his temperament, his loving manner, and his unflappable calm. If I could have found another dog like him, I would have taken him or her in a moment.
Charlett is a German Shepherd/Bull Mastiff mix.
Check Wikipedia's entry on Bull Mastiffs - they're brilliant dogs! Calm, loyal, low energy, fearless, naturally great with and protective of children, but not terribly aggressive, so if they encounter a bad guy, they're much more likely to pin the bad guy or back him into a corner and hold him there, rather than actually hurt him, which is BY FAR what I prefer in a dog. Yes, they're huge - Charlett may well get up to 120 pounds - but they're calm and they can do well in an apartment setting, provided they get a thirty-minute walk every day.
Now, of course we'll be giving Charlett a lot more time outside than that - I'm hoping she'll come with me to Morgan Hill when I go to write, because Holly the Rottweiler Puppy who belongs to my in-laws' tenants, would dearly love to have a play companion, and it would give Charlett someone her size and age to play with. I've also been walking an hour at least most days, in an effort to lose weight, and taking Sophie with me, so hopefully I'll be able to walk Charlett with Sophie.
Anyway, long story short, Charlett sounds like a sweet-natured, wonderful dog, and we're working hard to get ready for her. Eden will be bringing her over next Saturday, and I can't wait to meet both of them!
Okay, so it's way late now and I need to sleep. Ciao!
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