Charlie
Charlie
My name is: Charlie
I came from: China
Now I live in: West London
My favourite things are: Morning cuddles in bed with my parents, my squeaky tennis ball and sleeping on my parents brand new velvet sofa (much to their dismay!)
Charlie’s story
We picked Charlie up from his incredible foster parents Karolina and Phil at 8.20am on Thursday 2 January 2020 and we have not stopped falling in love with him since.
Charlie entered our lives rather unexpectedly - we had just moved into our new home, were recently engaged and were not actively looking for a dog. However, on one fateful evening a good friend of mine sent me a link to his page on the Underdog International website and as they say... the rest is history. My husband needed a little persuading though. Casey had just lost his beautiful Golden Retriever named Andie earlier that year and was not yet ready to love another dog but once he saw Charlie's picture and his big beautiful brown eyes, he could not say no either! We did a DNA test and turns out Charlie is 25% golden retriever so we like to think that a little part of Andie lives within him.
Charlie was rescued from the Chinese meat trade by the incredible women at Slaughterhouse Survivors. He was, therefore, understandably a little nervous and it took a while for him to trust Casey and me. I wanted to be as prepared as possible for his arrival so lined up an incredible dog behaviourist (Oli Juste) and dog walkers (Kensington Hounds) to help us from Day 1 to help him assimilate into London life and it helped Charlie (and us!) tremendously.
Charlie has always loved other dogs (perhaps it is because he grew up in a shelter with many dogs) but he was very scared of humans and was petrified of everything. He would cower in fear any time anyone came close to him, would try and run away when someone tried to pet him, refused to get into cars and hated being alone. The first couple of days were tough and I felt incredibly out of my depth as I had never rescued a dog before. There were lots of tears (mine!), frantic texts to Eva (our Underdog volunteer homechecker) and desperate calls to anyone who would listen. However, through it all, I never felt alone - Underdog International checked in on me and even put me in touch with a second behaviourist to help settle my nerves.
We have only had him for over 3 months but he has progressed leaps and bounds since then. He now has no problem with letting people pet him (even runs up to strangers now to ask for pets!), is a pro at jumping in and out of cars, has mastered lots of tricks (thanks Oli, Georgie and Drew!) and we are working on his separation anxiety.
I love everything about Charlie - the way he runs up to us in the morning to say hello, his funny little eyebrows, the way he loves to cuddle, the way he puts his face and paw on my lap when we are watching TV, his waggy bum when he knows it is dinner time, the way he gives kisses, the way he is so incredibly gentle and even how mischievous he is. He is truly one of the best decisions I have ever made and I would recommend adopting a dog via Underdog to anyone who is in a position to do so!