We all know that feeling when you see a dog, and you just know they’re the one. Mari Grigaliunas felt it when she saw an 8-month-old Australian Shepherd mix on Petsbuyandsell.com, listed by All Herding Dog Breed Rescue in Joliet, Illinois.
She’d been looking for the perfect match for some time, and, when she saw this pup’s “wild coloring, puppy dog eyes, and floppy right ear,” she knew he was the one.
A visit to Santa Claus marks the season. But she fretted on the way to the rescue: What if he didn’t like them? What if it wasn’t a good match? Jeff said he would like them-and he was right. The puppy “walked up to us and lay down at our feet, waiting for a belly rub,” Mari says. Everything was OK. They adopted him and named him Charlie “after Charlie Kelly, a loose-cannon character on the sitcom ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ because he too is a bit of a wild card.”
The couple understands that love is a two-way proposition, so they were surprised when Charlie cowered under their chairs for an hour at his first dog training class, but they were patient. “Charlie loves us when we have a bad day and when we have a great day just the same, and we owe him the same kind of love,” Mari says.
Having Charlie around is like the best tonic in the world. “When I wake up in the morning, tired and grumpy, Charlie runs to me bouncing around because he is simply so excited for another day,” Mari says. “When I come home