Charlie (and Sadie)

We have been a 3 dog family for many years. That changed in the fall when we lost our old guy, our 12 year old lab. Then, on December 17, our precious Buddy, a basset, died of intestinal cancer. It was a terrible time for our family. With Buddy’s death we became a one dog family. Hank, our younger lab was now the head dog of the family, and since he was used to being the baby, he was having a terrible time adjusting to the loss of his brothers. For quite a while prior to Buddy’s illness I had been checking out Golden Gate Basset Rescue regularly, and I knew when the time came, we would adopt a basset from them. A month or more before Buddy’s death I saw Sadie and Charlie on the GGBR website and fell in love with them. They had to be adopted together, and I just sensed their place would be with our family. I was not ready to adopt them yet, but I felt that when Buddy was gone, it would be his legacy to welcome them into our home. We brought Sadie and Charlie home on December 22. We had new collars, Christmas stockings, and presents under the tree waiting for them. They slept in bed with us the first night, and within days it seemed like they had always been members of our family. Sadie is a little princess. She’s a doll and she knows it. She’s spring loaded and will jump into our laps before we even see her coming, then wiggle and kiss, kiss, kiss. She’s got lots of squishy wrinkles and she loves to cuddle. She’s also a howler, and she’s taught her big brother Hank how to howl, too, although he sounds pretty ridiculous. Charlie is a quirky guy. He likes to cuddle, too, but he’s kind of pushy about where and when he wants it. For some reason, he often looks down at the ground, so we are really working with him to keep his head up by scratching him under the chin and lifting his chin towards us when we stroke his head. He’s not big about giving kisses, but just in the last few days he’s licked my nose twice. He gets so many kisses, so I guess he’s figuring out he might as well give some out, too. Our biggest challenge with Charlie has been his obsession with food, but since he’s learned there is always food in their feeder, he’s grown relaxed about it. He’s a great hugger, and at night loves to sleep between my husband and I on our pillows. Sadie and Charlie are wonderful dogs. They’ve fulfilled Buddy’s legacy more than we could have ever hoped. Buddy would be so happy to know Sadie and Charlie have found a blissful new life with us. We are so thankful to GGBR for rescuing them so that they could join our family. I hope Sadie and Charlie have forgotten any unhappiness from their past life and now only know what their life with us.