Charlie's Adventure to Honduras

Charlie is here!

He left Kentucky on April 21st.

This is a picture of him checking in at the airport in Louisville, KY.







My mom said everyone with Continental at the airport was really nice and they seemed very concerned for Charlie's well being.

He left Louisville on a 2 hour flight to Houston, spent the night, and the next morning took another 2 hour flight to Tegucigalpa on April 22nd.

When I arrived at the airport, I was told to head to the baggage claim area. Since I wasn't a passenger, I couldn't enter the area. I found a security guard and explained my situation. He found a customs agent for me. He said, "Yes, your dog is there, and he's been so good! He's very tranquilo and is just laying down in his cage." I thought, "Did my parents send me the right dog? There's no way he's just chilling in his cage. He's probably growling at everyone." Haha. The agent told me I would have to wait outside the baggage claim area until all of the passengers had cleared out. Then they would bring Charlie to me. I waited patiently, almost crying I was so excited, for 20 minutes. The agent came back outside and chatted with me for a while. He was suuuper nice. He saw how anxious I was, and so he took me to the security office where they let me have a security pass for me to go into the baggage claim area. When I got into the baggage claim area, Charlie's cage was waiting by the carousel. I ran up to the cage, with tears streaming down my face, and squealed "Baaaaaby dog! Charlie dog!!!" He started going crazy and was crying to be let out of the cage. I wanted to let him out, but I could smell the urine from 10 feet away so I knew he was probably covered in it.





I had to sign some papers, and pay a L. 50 fee (about $2.50) and then one of the workers carried the cage out to the car for me on a dolly.



When we got to the apartment, I prepared everything to give him a bath before I took him out of the cage. I turned on the water, got the towels and shampoo. When everything was ready, I cut the zip ties on the cage, pulled him out, and ran to the shower with him. The whole bottom part of his body was covered in pee. Nasty. :-/ While we were in the shower, he started gulping the water from the floor of the shower. I swear I think he drank like 2 gallons of water. He acted like he hadn't had anything to drink all day.

When Charlie gets a bath, he generally likes to run all over the house rubbing his whole body on the area rugs (at my parent's house). But in our apartment, we didn't have any big area rugs. So he just rubbed his body all over the ceramic floor. Haha.



About 10 minutes later he found the small rug in the kitchen and rubbed his body all over that.



Then he found the welcome mat, and rubbed his body all over that.



There was wet dog hair everywhere. What a mess!

After he was done "drying" himself, he walked around the entire apartment sniffing of everything. And everytime he heard someone outside in the hallway, he would growl. You see, he had been living in the states with my parents for almost 9 months, and they live in the country where he didn't see a lot of cars or hear a lot of noise. So when he got to our apartment, he was so confused about all of the noise...the cars outside, the neighbors walking up and down the hallway.

He was so confused and nervous, that he followed me everywhere. He was always behind me no matter where I went or what I was doing, just looking at me, like, "Mom, where are we? What are these strange smells? What is that noise outside?" It was adorable. :)



After we had bonded for a little while, I "unpacked" his things. My mom had packed his leash and collar, puppy training pads, and a note in a plastic bag that was taped to the top of the cage. The note explained Charlie's personality, haha, and the times to feed him, etc. She also handwrote a message on the side, explaining to the workers, that Charlie would enter his cage if you just told him, "Bedtime Charlie."



So that's the story of his adventure. :)

He has been here for over 2 weeks now, and he seems very happy. We moved to a new house with a yard, so there is a place for him to go to the bathroom. He likes to guard the house too. He barks at all of the neighbors when they walk by the front of our house. Our neighbor has a guard dog outside, and they have chatted a few times with each other over the wall.

The first few days in the new house we had a few workers there finishing things up. Charlie did not like them, and followed them around growling and trying to bite their heels. It was very funny. :)

Last week I took Charlie to meet my in-law's guard dog Muñeca. I was really hoping they would be friends. But Muñeca is so crazy jealous of Charlie that she barks and growls and foams at the mouth when she sees him. And Charlie just stands there and looks at her through the fence and growls back. So I don't think they're going to be friends. :(

Sometimes I bring him to the store with me if I know I will be here all day. He likes to sit at the door and watch all of the people walk by. He's sort of famous in this commercial center now. ;) When I don't bring him to work with me, people ask me where he is. It's because he's so darn cute. That or it's because people think it's weird that I bring a dog to work with me. Haha.

On Sunday we went to the country house in Valle de Angeles so he could run around. He tried to kill one of the guard's chickens, and in the process, got tons of cockaburrs caught in his fur. The cockaburrs here are so big that I could not pull them out, so I had to cut big chunks of his fur out. Now one ear looks longer than the other, hehe, and he looks ridiculous. But I told him that's what he gets for chasing the chickens. ;)

So, that's what we've been doing the last couple of weeks. So far everything is great. He loves being here with his mommy ;), and I loved having him here with me!