A Charlie Weekend!

Charlie, our beloved 133 pound yellow lab, had quite a weekend! For those of you who don't know our family "that well," the Markin family has quite a history when it comes to pets. We had a golden retriever once named Cody. Cody was a bit "mentally challenged" and quite large....obese...140 or so pounds!! His claim to fame happened one fall weekend when he wandered out of our yard. We looked all weekend for him. On Monday morning I called the Human Society and discovered Cody had indeed spent the weekend there. I drove down to get him and as the paperwork was being done I asked the clerk where Cody was picked up. "180th and F Street." Well, we live of 182nd and F Street! The clerk continued, "It says that we got a call that there was a dead, bloated animal on the side of the road." Yes, that was our beloved Cody. He wasn't dead, he was just worn out walking two blocks. And, he wasn't bloated, he was just fat.

So, this last week I called the vet to make an appointment for Charlie because he had been dragging his rear end around meaning he needed to get his little glands (how gross) cleaned. I called and said I needed Charlie to see the vet because he was "dragging his rear." Rod took him in for his appointment. When the vet came in she had this very distressed look on her face. She looked down at Charlie, who was laying on the floor and said to Rod, "How did you get him here? Did you have to carry him?" At that point, while Rod is being totally confused, Charlie got up and walked over to the vet, giving her a big kiss. She had this incredibly shocked look on her face and said, "Oh my!! When your wife made the appointment saying that Charlie was 'dragging his rear' they thought he had loss the use of his back legs!" Evidently she had prepared herself for needing to potentially put Charlie down!!
Charlie's "big weekend" didn't end there! On Sunday evening Rod was working in the shop, a metal building on our property where he works on the cars, builds things, etc. Charlie was outside keeping dad company. I was sitting inside watching the late news when Rod walks in with this absolutely disgusted look on his face. He walks into the family room, puts his hands on his hips and announces, "Well he's really done it now!!" I had no idea what he was talking about and asked him what was wrong? He said, "Can't you smell it?" Well, I had my O2 on and all I could smell was nice oxygen enriched air, until I took off the cannula and smelled SKUNK! Rod, still standing there, in the family room, with his hands on his hips and smelling like skunk proceeded to tell me that "Charlie chased a skunk into the shop and the skunk sprayed Charlie, the shop and me!" At this point, I've put the cannula back on, pulled my pajama top over my head and asked him why he was still standing there! He said, "Well, I don't smell THAT bad! You should smell the shop! You should smell Charlie!!" I was worried that the skunk fumes might cause an explosion with all of that oxygen enriched air and was about to ask him about it when I peeked out at him from under the safety of my pajama top. But, instead of asking about a potential explosion, I started laughing. Here it was, 11:00 at night, and I was laughing at a 6 foot 200+ pound man in cowboy boots standing in the family room smelling like a skunk. I did what any good wife would do, I called Nick and Chris so they could enjoy the moment with me!!