It's with much pain in my heart that I write this email.. My boy Charlie crossed over to the Rainbow Bridge today approx 5:30PM.As much as I love all my dogs Charlie was my heart and soul. I remember seeing his picture on an email from Polk Cty April 2010. I had gotten busy during the week and did not respond so on Monday am I called and the first thing the person said was "Oh I think he was put down on Friday, wait let me check".. My heart fell to my stomach. Then she says "Oh no my supervisor pulled him to see if I could find rescue". I told her TAG HIM.. Then it was "Crap how am I going to bring another dog into my house".. LOL So I named him after my husband hence the name Charlie... Several months ago we had to removed Charlie's one and only good eye.. After that Charlie became my 24x7 concern.. It's all about Charlie.. everything was Charlie.. I could not wait to get home from a long day at the clinic to make sure Charlie was okay.. I hand fed Charlie, I gave Charlie his meds in cream cheese, for the first 3-4 weeks he would lay with me on the sofa and sleep right next to me at night. A few weeks ago he started showing signs of maybe a hurt back.. So now it was make sure Charlie gets his meds on a regular basis.. Today I had made an appt to see about maybe acupunture for Charlie to improve his back and neck pain because I could see he wasn't getting any better. But before his appt when I went to pick him up I noticed Charlie could not walk.. He laid there in his own pee, barking and could not get up. I rushed him to ER and after blood work and an exam all they could tell me was that they could not find anything wrong with him and that they would have to run MORE TESTS... xrays, MRT , ct scan.. And after all that they might still not know what was wrong. Charlie was an old man.. and not a very happy one these days. So I made the most difficult decision of my life and set him free. I couldn't stand the thought of life without Charlie but as I watched him I knew that it could not be about ME it had to be about Charlie.. Kimber was there with me and said to me "Do you feel sorry for him?" My answer was YES.. and therefore I had to make this about Charlie and set him free from a body that no longer worked for him. He wasn't really happy about the fact that he could not see or hear either this was just the final straw for him. So with the heaviest of hearts I gave Charlie his freedom!.I love you Buddy!!! You were my soul and my heart.. Patty
