Originally posted May 25, 2009 – This is a post from another blog of mine, before I decided to do a separate dog blog. Black Jack became very ill that night and we had him put to sleep on May 27, 2009. Charlie and Black Jack were with us for a long time and we miss them terribly….
Black Jack and Charlie
Black Jack has had some health problems lately for which the vet is unable to offer a solution, so we’re using the zapper and Standard Process whole food supps, and he’s doing great. I also do acupressure on his hips every night. He’s 13 or 14 and still going strong. He came to us via a couple who rescued him one winter when he was wandering and starving. They couldn’t keep him and were looking for a home for him. We had lost our border collie, Cowboy Joe, in a freak accident 6 months earlier and were looking for another dog. We knew a dog would come to us. I told Stevo I wanted our next dog to be named Jack. Two weeks later, we found out about this dog and this couple brought him over for us to look at. He was roaming around the front yard, looking rangy and wild, like a wolf, and I asked the guy if they had named him. “We call him Black Jack,” he said. That was it for me. Love at first sight. 
Charlie is half Doberman and half St. Bernard (really) and he’s simply the most wonderful dog in the world. He’s a healer of sorts…I once saw him comfort a woman who had just been diagnosed with cancer. He went up to her and put his head in her lap and she came alive. Her face went from gray and lifeless to pink and smiling. He just has a way of making everything okay. He was born at a breeders (accidental love tryst between a pure Doberman and a pure St. Bernard). Someone who knew of the litter asked for one of the puppies, so Charlie was flown to California from Ohio at 8 weeks of age. I don’t think he’s ever recovered – he hates loud noises. Anyway, the guy who got him ended up being gone from his apartment for 14 hours a day, fishing off the Northern California coast. So Charlie grew up in a crate.
Finally, the guy gave Charlie to his parents, who lived on an orchard that was owned by friends of ours. They told us about him and we eventually went to see him. Again, love at first sight. We couldn’t believe they were giving this dog away. We took him home that day and he’s been with us ever since. Charlie is 11 years old and is still like a youngster. He’s been on a raw food diet for 9 years. I think it’s working!
We were never able to have kids, so these guys are it.
