Dear friends,

Which of you has a dog? Well, I think in some way or another all of us are or have been attached to a small animal. I am going to talk to you about my little friend. The little guy to whom I am going to refer could actually relate to the British royal family because of his name. Charlie was not named after Prince Charles of England, but after his grandpa Charlie the I.

Charlie the II was born 9 years ago in the most southern part of Greece, the island of Crete. After staying for a while with the rest of his family he was adopted when he was 3 months old from my family. At that time I was temporarily in Athens ready to move to the US. That’s where my acquaintance with Charlie occurred.

Charlie from the very young age of 3 months was a very energetic and playful puppy. He would never rest, not even when he had to. I am sure that if the people who made the Energizer commercial had seen him, they wouldn’t choose the bunny but him for promoting their batteries. Before he would eat some of his food, Charlie would never let anyone in peace.

After two months from Charlie’s adoption, I left for the States, and would always ask about him. I learned with a great interest about his different activities and was always proud of my dog. There was always something new to learn about Charlie. Something I could never believe until I saw, how fast he was growing. In only a couple of months he had become a big Irish setter guard dog, almost 5 times the size I remembered him.

When I visited Greece after a few months, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Charlie was not a little puppy anymore or the small prince I knew. He looked more like a real dog. This was something amazing. Despite his size I don’t think that anything had changed in his mind. Charlie started behaving like a little kid. Jumping up and down all over the place, not even letting me approach the main door of my house. I remember that I wanted to surprise my parents, but of course Charlie signaled my arrival! That’s where actually his personality started taking a particular shape.

In order for you to understand Charlie’s personality, I have to give you examples of things he did in the last couple of years. Let me saw you how Charlie the II has become such a notorious dog.

Charlie has never had a girlfriend in his life. The reason is not because he’s alienated from other dogs but because he hasn’t still learn how to distinguish the two sexes. Male or female, dog or human, that’s the same for him. Many times I had to stop him from climbing on my friends’ feet as he was trying to express his sincere emotions towards them. Once a friend of mine brought his Saint Bernard male puppy to my place. That was something to remember! Both animals start wrestling each other but each one followed a different style. Babi, the Saint Bernard puppy, was playing like a Sumo wrestler and Charlie was trying to imitate Bruce Lee. The result was, a damaged yard fence which Babi couldn’t jump over and an increased sexual appetite for Charlie. Charlie could be easily misunderstood for being bisexual, but the fact is he never had sex in his life, he’s just a very progressive dog.

Let me tell you now about his likes and dislikes. This is something very difficult to define. Dogs tend to bark to strangers, Charlie does that too sometimes. Unfortunately he’s not persistent with this tactic. Charlie often barks to my family but not to strangers and other times attacks anyone his sees in a playful way. He has this unique charisma to scare people but also let people scare him.

There are times that I tried to walk him around the neighborhood block something that he doesn’t like. Even if I try to drag him, he still resists in following me. Recently I have developed a new tactic. Charlie hates a particular corner of the block which is closer to the east side of my house. When I want to walk him around the block I take him from the west side so I can fool him. Then when we approach the scary corner I make him run back to the house from the east side of the block. In that way he walks all over the block. My tactic always works since Charlie doesn’t have very good sense of direction.

Whatever criticism, I am making for Charlie the II, I have to mention about his patriotism and loyalty to my family and particularly to me. It’s been many years now that my relations with my neighbors are under a certain kind of tension. The problem was created because of their "walking hot dog", the short legged, long bodied creature that each time it hears my name barks like a bulldog. I can’t recall what I have done to this dog, but probably is the height difference I have with it. Charlie now has never seen any incident between me and this "hot dog". Although he hasn’t seen anything, my dog just loves attacking this creature whenever it’s out for walk.

By now you know about Charles’ energy, alternate lifestyle and loyalty. What about his guarding abilities? Charlie can get easily over protective, and then God help the person who’s in his way. That happened to my mother. Once she was getting inside the house and Charlie was coming out to welcome her. Everything seemed fine, until Charlie started increasing his speed as he was running towards my mother. What happened was that my mother had not seen a stranger who was approaching the gate of our house. Charlie jumped on my mother, he actually made her fall down and he continued his way towards the gate to bark at the stranger. It took a while for my mother and for the neighbor who saw the incident to realize what had happened. The neighbor surprisingly asked my mother if my father had hit her? Fortunately there were no casualties and my mother is more cautious now when she’s walking into the house.