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Charlie, a schnoodle, loves his birthday hat. It lasted long enough for a photo after 3 tries.
Charlie turned seven on Monday. In all his seven years, I had never tuned in his birthday. After seeing a friend’s post about her dog’s birthday, I decided we should celebrate. I don’t know how Charlie knew that this trip to the dog park was special. He makes a high pitched yelping sound when he is excited. He started to do this before I even turned into the park. He knew he was going to see his best friends.
Charlie is a black schnoodle, half schnauzer, half poodle. We chose him from the litter because whenever you would pick him up, he would immediately calm down and relax in your arms. He still loves to be held. My husband and I have three daughters, but we had chosen Charles as a possible boy name. It was a natural choice for our empty nest dog, and it fits his personality perfectly.
Charlie loves to play with other dogs. His favorite friend is Petey, my mother-in-law’s dog. He and Petey walk together often. Charlie knows Petey’s name and will respond to it whenever we say it. “Petey’s here!” gets an excited yelpy run to the backdoor. Petey’s mother was hesitant to bring him to the party. She says he is wimpy not social. The dog park birthday party was a success for Petey. At one point he even wandered off with the other dogs.
Some of Charlie’s other guests were dogs from the neighborhood that he has walked with. Mollie and Trixie soon learned that I had Berry Shortbread Cookies. They would sit and smile up at me. They were under my spell which made it easy to take cute pictures of them. Mollie even danced for her cookie.
Charlie and his friend, Mollie.
Breesy, the cocker spaniel, and Lucy, a white standard poodle, also came to the party. I am not sure who had more fun, the dogs or the people, but we all decided one thing, “We should have more birthday parties at the dog park!”
After the party and a bath, Charlie curled up for a nice long nap.
Reflections on the Teche 