Charlie and Me: Charlie comes Home - Day 1

 After continued pressure from Seema and Alaya to bring home a pet, I reached out to many dog breeders in Michigan for varied breeds of canines, well into the COVID season, around Jun-Jul 2020. Most of them didn’t have any puppies for sale, stating that due to COVID the puppies were in high demand and most of the litter had been already booked or sold. In late Sep, this lady from Flint Mi reached out to me to check if I was still interested in a golden retriever puppy, that would be available by end of Nov. Hallelujah. This was a signal from above. She had a litter of 8 puppies, 5 boys, and 3 girls, and many of the puppies were already booked, but there were 2 girl puppies and 2 boy puppies for me to choose from. Dwight, that’s what he was called, was my automatic choice, with his tan complexion and droopy eyes. I didn’t even have the time to check with Seema since I had to make a spot decision before all the puppies were gone. So that’s how Charlie formerly known as Dwight came to be a part of our family. The next part was keeping this a secret from the kids since we wanted to spring this decision on them.

This surprise was revealed to Sidharth when he was using my phone for some of his communications with his friends and the breeder was texting back and forth with me for the choice of our puppy. So, it was only Alaya who was not on this big secret. We told her that we had to visit Sidharth’s college to check out that campus on Nov 14th and she couldn’t be home alone and had to accompany us. Reluctantly and after much grumbling and whining, she chose to join us, though she slept much of the way to Flint. We told her that we were going to meet Sidharth’s head of the computer science department before we go the college. The astonishment on her face was a sight that I will never forget till my dying day when the breeder came out and placed a plump Golden Retriever puppy in her arms. She was speechless, would be an understatement. After finishing the formalities with the breeder, we drove back with a happy girl and a tan chubby puppy in her lap. During the ride back home, we had many good naming suggestions from Munni and Kavi, but Alaya decided that the puppy would be christened Charlie. And it was Charlie who came home, to an immensely happy family, with the aunts watching and blessing via video chat and mom performing the obligatory 'arti' as he entered our home and our hearts.

The first day he was a nervous wreck since he was away from his family and maybe the new surroundings intimidated him. His appetite was reduced, and he wanted to be with us or someone close to him all the time. He’d whimper when left alone or even bark when he was locked up in his crate. I was nominated to sleep next to his crate and attend to his biological needs, every couple of hours at night. Groan. He was up at 3 AM, finished his business on his pee pad, and then was a bundle of energy, ready to play with me. The only problem was I wasn’t and ready to go back to bed. It was around 4:30 AM when I went back to bed, only to be awakened at 6AM, by Charlie barking furiously, wanting to be let out. But he seemed far more settled on Day 2.