Remembering Charlie || A Post By Matt

(Last night we said goodbye to our beloved Charlie. Today's post is brought to you by Matt.)  

The short story on my dog Charlie.  I was a law student at Tulane University in 2005.  On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall in New Orleans where Tulane is located.  Shortly before the highways were closed down, myself and a few friends were able to leave the city and make our way to Atlanta.  After the storm, we were informed that we were not allowed to return to the city that semester due to the destruction.  Unlike New Orleans, I was very lucky and spent that semester at Wake Forest before being allowed to return to New Orleans in January of 2006. However, you may recall the photos of the spray painted "X" on front doors of many homes in the city.  These tags would signal to first responders whether someone or something was in the house, including animals left behind by their owners.   In the middle of April 2006, a classmate asked me if I wanted a white lab puppy.  She and her boyfriend were sheltering a litter of 10 puppies that were rescued by ARNO after the storm.  ARNO stands for "Animal Rescue New Orleans".  Although finals were gearing up, I said yes, went to her house and found 9 white lab puppies raising hell in her living room.  I asked where the 10th puppy was and was directed to look under the couch where I found the alpha puppy sound asleep.  He was exactly my sort of speed.  His name was Zeus.  What is amazing is that he and his litter were born on February 28, 2006, which was Mardi Gras.  While living in New Orleans, I lived in a condo on St. Charles Avenue which is one of the historic roads and parade routes for Mardi Gras. Zeus was a good name, but I gave him a better one.  I re-named him St. Charles, Charlie for short.  He was my sidekick for nearly 4 years before we met Christina, which is when he became our "Fur Baby" (which to this day he and I object to that name) and soon thereafter he became the protector of my pregnant wife and ultimately my kids.  Many nights he would sleep between their rooms until they fell asleep when he would then return to my side of the bed.  He helped the kids clear their plates and always served as a large furry jungle gym for them to crawl all over.  Such a loving and laid back friend.  He was the best dog ever and I will miss him terribly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

When Grief Bubbles Over in the Cereal Aisle

We hit a few more bumps in the road over the weekend. I'm trying really, really hard to stay positive and focus on the blessings around us during such a dark and frustrating time in our lives.
Friday night Charlie started dry heaving really bad. We were up with him all night trying to comfort and calm him until the vet opened. It was truly a blessing that our vet allowed us to bring him in when they opened that morning even though there were no available appointments that day. After rounds of tests, scans and blood work the doctor informed us that Charlie has advanced lymphoma and the swollen lymph nodes in his throat are bringing him a great deal of discomfort. We are meeting with an oncologist early this week to find out our treatment options and next steps. In the meantime, we have him on some medicine to reduce his discomfort -- another blessing.
The next morning I received a call from mom. She was in an ambulance with dad on the way to the hospital. Dad had taken another downhill turn. When the paramedics arrived for dad it was a ginormous blessing that they agreed to break the rules and take him to our preferred hospital which is way outside of their radius. Dad is stable for now and has the entire family there keeping him company, minus me. The rigors of chemo have deteriorated his brain significantly and there are a litany of additional health issues that we continue to uncover as tests, scans and blood work results come in. I don't know what each day will bring from here on out but this does change our family trip down this weekend. For various reasons I can't get down until Thursday night but am now flying out alone instead of bringing the entire family down. I would be remiss not to recognize the huge blessing this new job has been for me -- my boss has been so flexible and understanding and my new salary has made extremely expensive last minute flights home a little less financially burdensome.
Lastly, I'm thankful that no one was in the cereal aisle this morning when I had a complete breakdown and had to abandon my shopping cart to run to my car. I need to step away from the blog the rest of this week but will return when I can with updates.
Thank you all for your continued prayers. And for those of you who have asked how you can tangibly help -- you can send me your favorite praise & worship songs to add to my Spotify play list.

A Pawty Day || Charlie is 77

Today Charlie turns 11! 

 

It's hard to believe our little fur baby is slowing down (just a teeny bit) and is eating senior dog food these days. But outside of anxiety, allergies and dirty teeth, he is otherwise super healthy and happy. Charlie has seriously been the very best dog to us -- he is protective of his family, very cuddly, has never eaten a shoe or piece of furniture in his life and let's Thomas roll on top of him and pull his tail without complaint.

 

Lucky for me, Charlie came with my marriage to Matt when he was just five years young. Matt got Charlie as a puppy 11 years ago. After Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans during Matt's final year of law school at Tulane, Charlie's parents were rescued from St. Charles Avenue. Soon thereafter, Charlie was born on Mardi Gras and he has been partying ever since.  

On Saturday we threw a little pawty for him. And by "pawty" I mean the kids sang happy birthday, gave him a cake, took him for a long walk and played outside all day! Gone are the days of throwing elaborate dog parties, but Charlie still had a terrific day and was utterly exhausted by the end of it.

For the sixth year we surprised Charlie with his favorite peanut butter banana doggy cake from Canine Cafe . He ate the entire thing, including the doily, in two bites.

Afterwards, the kids ate lunch in their play house. Caroline happily played waitress and Thomas happily accepted the service...and then threw his plate on the ground after a few bites. Oh, toddlers (sigh).

Matt also chased the kiddos around the patio making sure no one even thought about removing their helmet.

Then Thomas mowed the yard under Caroline's supervision before both of them collapsed into bed for a THREE HOUR NAP! It's amazing how many mimosas you can drink with your husband on the patio in three hours. After the kiddos woke up we took the party down the street to our friend's house (sorry Charlie).

In typical fashion, I showed up wearing the exact same outfit as Lisa.

And Matt had on the same outfit as John. Even our little guys were wearing the same monogrammed seersucker shorts. Hilarious.

We spent the rest of the afternoon and late into the evening grilling out, drinking beers and mimosas and letting the kids exhaust themselves on the playground and running up and down the hill.

It was a great day!

Previous Birthday Pawties: Charlie Turns Ten Charlie Turns Nine  Charlie Turns Eight  Charlie Turns Seven Charlie Turns Six

Charlie's 70th Birthday Pawty

Charlie turned 70 on Saturday!

And he still doesn't look a day over three! 

To celebrate our original (fur) baby, we invited some friends over to drink mimosas, throw tennis balls, grill some burgers and of course, eat cake! It was the best pawty ever.

The kiddos had an absolute blast running around the backyard collecting rocks, picking up sticks and playing with bubbles. The weather was perfect and got us all so excited to do this so much more often once it really starts to warm up.

For lunch we grilled my favorite Cabernet burgers and some hotdogs for the minis.

John and Lisa are on a low carb diet so we skipped the buns and lettuce-wrapped our burgers. So good.

Lisa brought over broccolini which is my new favorite vegetable ever.

 

The big kids lasted all of 2 minutes at the kid table before they were crawling all over us begging for cupcakes.  So we ran outside to sing happy birthday to Charlie and broke out the cupcakes.

For the fifth year in a row we picked up a peanut butter doggy cake from Canine Cafe for Charlie.

Easily his favorite day of the year.

Caroline being the good sharer that she is offered Thomas his first bite of cupcake. In one bite he took the entire pile of icing right off the top just like his sister does.

And very stealthily these two polished off the platter of mini cupcakes. 

Happy birthday, Charlie! Even though our attention is split three ways, we promise we love you as much as ever! You are the most attentive watch dog, so protective of your human siblings, the cuddliest pup there ever was and the best toddler food vacuum! As much as we love celebrating you we can't help but also be extremely sad that you are TEN now. We cherish every day with you!

Previous Birthday Pawties: Charlie Turns Nine  Charlie Turns Eight  Charlie Turns Seven Charlie Turns Six