Charlette bulls her way into our lives

Now that all the kids are moved out, Nancy and I are living in a nice apartment in Sandy! It's pretty easy to maintain -- since the complex takes care of virtually everything!

Well, Nancy was feeling lonely and wanted another dog -- since this old dog wasn't paying enough attention to her. So she agreed to help Jared take care of his dog if he would get one and pay for it!

I expected a nice little house dog, maybe like the one that Lena had -- but without the yapping!

So what does Jared do? He gets a big rough and tough English bulldog! Oh, my heck!
Like I can take care of her! Oh, she's really nice around everyone and all other animals -- but she is really too big and rough with children!

She's really too big for me. I took her for a walk the other night to the boys' apartment in another building in our complex. When we rounded a corner and she saw a family with two boys playing out on the lawn, she was determined to join them whether I wanted to or not!

When I tried to restrain her with the leash, I think my crutch put too much pressure on my right ribs.

I finally had to let her go! She started to run up to the kids and the one boy who was about eight years old ran and jumped into his grandfather's arms to get away from Charlette. Charlette thought this was a great game! I finally had to call Nathan on the cell phone and have him come and get Charlette. Now I'm nursing a broken or cracked rib!

Sometimes we find ourselves alone with the dog! That was the case with me when Nancy, Jared and Nathan went on Hunt Mysteries Murder Mystery Mexican Riviera Cruise for 9 days!

While they were gone, I and Jason were responsible to take care of Charlette, Jared and Mom's dog! That went OK, and I think Jason at times actually enjoyed playing around with her.

Then Jared and Nathan went to Cleveland, Ohio, for their work with Defender (ADT) and then on Friday morning and most of the day Saturday, Nancy and Jason were gone doing a Hunt Mysteries show in Glenwood Springs, Colo. Being completely alone with Charlette was a lot tougher.
I did get Matt, in the apartment office to come and walk Charlette on Friday afternoon. I finally took Charlette down to the entrance in the drainage basin and let her run around while I sat in the car and kept an eye on her.

Then, Sunday, Jason and I took Charlette there and the two of them played fetch and wrestled with a gym sock!

She is really a lot of fun to play with, but she is so strong and won't let go! I'm really leery of getting my hands or fingers very close to her mouth when she's trying to grab a toy from me!

Sometimes it's fun just watching her play! This was the case today -- watching Jason play with her! I think Jason enjoyed it, too! I took several pictures in quick sucession as they played with the quickly-shredded gym sock!

Every day I go out on the patio and sit with Charlette and just watch the clouds go by or the pigeons and starlings flying around
!
She really perks up when anyone comes by! And if it's another dog, she better be on her leash or she's over the patio railing and ready to play!

One time recently, while Nancy, Jared and Nathan were on the cruise, our neighbor Carol was out with her like bugnose, which is virtually blind and on her last legs! Well, Charlette jumped the railing just as I was taking her out the patio door and before I could get the leash on her.

Charlette and Carol and her dog get along fine. Then Carol's husband came out. He is pretty unstable, recovering from a stroke, I think. Charlette ran up to him and almost knocked him over.

He then jumped up and down several times in front of him and almost jumped up into his face. He, Carol's husband, decided that was too dangerous for him and retreated to his apartment while Carol and I got Charlette on her leash and back onto the patio!

Earlier today, Nancy and Charlette spotted the neighbor's tiny kittens that must be living on their patio. The two of them spent a while just watching them -- and them watching Charlette, while Charlette was spread out on the lawn on the outside of the patio.