Charlie

All of our dogs have an interesting story and Charlie is no different. We've lived at our current address since 1980 and the road is a dead end road. We get a lot of stray dogs that people no longer want.
Charlie was different. He came to our neighborhood when a young couple moved into the rental house across the road from us. They had a yard full of kids. They had a little blonde haired girl that looked like an angel. Often in the evening before dusk moved in you could hear her out in the yard call her dog. Cholly, Cholly (that's how she pronounced Charlie's name) she would call and this shaggy dog would come running and they would play until it got dark.
I wish I had gotten a picture of them. They stayed in the house across the street until hard times set in. I heard he lost his job but at any rate, they moved away in the middle of the night. I thought they would come back because there were some things left outside in the yard. A swing set, a small bicycle and Cholly.
For weeks afterwards, Charlie sat in the driveway and watched each car that drove by. After a few days, Jilda began taking food and water until we figured out what to do.
Well the bottom line is, Charlie is now our dog. He was welcomed into the pack with little fanfair. He is a comical dog and smart too. He can somehow open some of the doors in our house and if I ever close our backyard gate without locking it, he can open it up. I hid once and watched him do it.
We've had Charlie for a few years now and he seems really happy, but whenever he hears the voice of a child, he runs toward it with reckless abandon. I imagine it broke that little girls heart to lose Cholly, it hurts mine just thinking about it.