After Berkeley Humane: Charlie

We’ve gotta hand it to this adopter: she’s a rock star. Not only is this adopter a former volunteer of ours, but when writing in to us with her adopted dog’s after-Berkeley-Humane story, she did all our blog work for us! She sent us such an engaging, visually compelling email that we here at blog HQ are doing little more than cutting and pasting her email (and her captioned photos) into a blog post and leaving it be. So—meet Charlie and his mama-extraordinaire!

Here's Charlie learning to swim for the first time! He loves playing fetch in the water.

I recently adopted a 4-month-old aussie/lab/pit mix named Charlie (formerly Finn.) I volunteered at Berkeley Humane for over a year while I was attending UC Berkeley, and wrote my thesis on using animal-assisted therapy to treat adolescent mood and anxiety disorders. I think that animals will save the world! Upon graduating last May, I began my search for a rescue puppy to train as a therapy dog, who would eventually become a 'co-therapist' in my practice as a Marriage and Family therapist. I only needed one loving encounter with Charlie before I was running to Kris [Note from Berkeley Humane: that’s our stellar Canine Coordinator!] asking about adopting him.

Charlie is a remarkable little puppy. He's as sweet and loving as can be, but also curious and rambunctious. We are currently attending dog obedience classes at Berkeley Humane, and Charlie is making excellent progress.

Here are some photos of our adventures in the last month:

Charlie quickly became a brave little water dog, as well as my kayak co-captain!

Here's Charlie with his best friend, Kia, my friend's 3-year-old pit bull. They love having play dates!

Charlie loves his older sister, Bo, my 9-year-old Greek tortoise. He follows her around and makes sure she doesn't get into trouble.

He even lets her share his bed with him! I'm such a proud mom!

Anyway, just wanted to give everyone at Berkeley Humane an update on my sweet little man. You guys do amazing work, and I'm so glad I was able to give one of your awesome dogs a good home! Charlie is my baby and my best friend—thank you for bringing him into my life!

Three cheers for Charlie! It’s wonderful when our volunteers make a special connection like this adopter did with Charlie; we deeply appreciate all the time she gave to us, and are so pleased that these two made such an immediate, loving team!

We’re always looking for volunteers who'd love to give their time to our animals. Are you interested in helping other cats and dogs make similar love connections, like Charlie and his adopter did? Learn all about our volunteer opportunities here!