For Julie & Eric: A Mostly Charlie Post

Who's that peaking over Cadie's cute little bum?

Why, it's Charlie of course!

Charlie is the big-hearted pup that Cadence and I (and occasionally James, too!) get to spend time with each (week)day. He's an overgrown Yorkie, which makes him just the right size to romp around with Cadence in a fairly even match. They love to play and bounce together, play tug of war, and occasionally they even let me play, too.

(I love how viscous he looks in that photo-but it's all camera magic, I assure you. Aside from showing a very surprised School of Visual Arts student what he thought of her work by peeing on her sculpture during our walk the other day, he's just a big (for a Yorkie) sweetheart.)

See?

Cadence took the above picture. Not bad, huh? Charlie had been standing on my shoulder, but stepped off just as she hit the button.

Who do YOU think is winning?

Kisses!

So, as I alluded to before, much like Cadence, Charlie loves to bounce. He jumps and leaps and flips and does all sorts of strange acrobatic feats when we play...he loves it, but I fear for the state of his poor hips and knees a few years down the line! See for yourself:

Yes, that is Charlie ABOVE the couch. Aia.

But Charlie is just one member of this amazing household. Although we almost never see them, his 'parents' Julie and Eric are also remarkably generous and thoughtful people. We met them through Eric's cousin Brittany, who I've talked about here before, she's one of our best friends from Kentucky, and her daughter Kate is one of Cadence's closest friends.

They have been very good to us, trusting us with their beloved dog, and being patient with our sudden absenteeism when all the badness happened last year with my grandfather passing and my hospitalization and subsequent retreat to KY all in rapid succession. Though they did have to find someone else after the drama dragged on for too long, the fact that they then took us back on once things had settled down a few months later really meant a lot.

And then, the other day, Cadence and I arrived for our daily walk to find a lovely note from Julie alerting us to the presence of some, well, presents for us! In a totally unnecessary but unbelievably sweet gesture, they had put together a gender-nuetral care package for Mama, Baba, and the new baby full of all sorts of wonderful things from wipes to a sweater to temperature-reading ducks and so much more.

And, of course, (and as if that wasn't enough!) there was a separate gift there for a certain Big Girl...a Congratulations on becoming a Big Sister gift, which was perfect. Julie indicated in her note that she had hoped to find a puppy that looked like Charlie, but I think what they found was just right:

Cadence named the puppy Domnayno, and has been carrying her around and taking her to bed with her every night. She wouldn't even put her down while she and Charlie played that afternoon:

So we owe many many thanks to Julie, Eric, and Charlie for all of their love and support over these past few months - we are unspeakably grateful.

See you tomorrow, Charlie!