charlie bijou i took her to meet her new family yesterday. that girl wouldn't even really look me in the eye when i explained charlie's food and pills and habits. i don't think she was listening. she didn't even pet her when they met. she's a pitbull for christ sakes. she needs attention. i cried the whole way home. i don't think i did the right thing. 030103 ... raze the charlie i know is a five-year-old golden retriever. he's about the same age i am in people years. he comes running whenever he sees me in the park. he has this great benevolent face that makes me think of falkor the luck dragon. i've never heard him bark, but he sneezes when he's excited. sometimes he runs through my legs and leans against me. i like to think it's his way of offering a hug. he loves gloves. one day he bit down on my thumb and tried to take me for a ride. he's a character, that charlie. 201204 ... gja charlie - mallrat - check it out 201208 ... epitome of incomprehensibility Will I regret saying "Charlie's Weekly Martyr Complex"? (If they can free-speech, so can I. But it's rich, meaning poor, of me to mock tragedy for not being subtle enough.) Stuck in the past and the future. 201222 ... e_o_i Explaining: Charlie Hebdo was the magazine in France that got its office shot up; "hebdo" is short for hebdomadaire, which means weeky. (Not Even Bothering with the Accent, is she.) Another memorable Charlie is the character in "Flowers for Algernon." I read the short-story version with my student in November; I'd read the novel a few years back. 201222 ... e_o_i historical society Checkpoint Charlie, Berlin Wall. 210228 ... raze he's led by his stomach. a few days ago he found an empty box of timbits in the park. he's still convinced there's a bite-size donut or two hidden behind a tree somewhere, and nothing you say will convince him otherwise. he's just as happy eating snow, though. i asked sue, his human, if he had any special toys. "he loves stuffed animals," she said. "he likes carrying them around. if someone comes to the door, he'll bring them one of his animals. they're always best friends for about three months, and then one day he decides the friendship is over and he disembowels them." we've known charlie for coming up on two years now. he hasn't tried to eat our guts yet. so i think we're safe. 220106 ... raze he was behind us seconds after we stepped into the park, snow-nosed and smiling, his loose leash rattling around our feet. he knows we always have milk bones. he knows we have three. and he wants them all in one shot. after he'd been fed, he ran around us a few times before disappearing between my legs. i can't remember the last time he gave me one of his hugs. his tail drummed a steady sideways rhythm against my jeans. whap whap whap whap. you've never met a dog so happy to see winter in full flow, and so heartened to see his friends wading through the thick of it. 220130 ... raze he's been having trouble opening and closing his mouth. they think it's a pinched nerve. he's getting better, but it's going to be a while before he's back to normal. not that it stopped him from trying to eat a chocolate donut he found in the park this morning. you can take charlie's bite away, but you can't rob him of his love for anything that might be edible. muriel's been feeding him slices of cheese until the strength returns to his jaw. i wonder if he likes the same kind i do. 220215 ... raze he ran almost the entire length of the park to get to us. sue said her vet didn't know any more about what was wrong with him than she did. she wasn't sure what to do to help him get better. at the worst of it, she was giving him water from a turkey baster. i watched him devour milk bones like it was nothing and told her love probably helped him more than anything else. 220217 ... raze sue was walking him. they were on the sidewalk. we were in the car. i saw him see me, but we didn't have time to stop. he shot me a despondent look that said, "if this leash wasn't keeping me here, i would hop in the back seat with you right now. i miss you." i miss you too, charlie. 220504 ... raze he seems to lose interest in us pretty quickly once he figures out we don't have any treats for him. food-motivated to the end, that guy. it's always nice to see him, though, rare as it is these days. 240301 what's it to you? who go blather from