Ha! Actually, no. I’ve gotten many an email with similar exclamations after people see this photo and other current pictures. Chloe has certainly grown in relation to Charlie, but the fact is, Charlie is not really that big!
(A funny aside: when my sister saw this photo, she said, “it looks like you photoshopped Chloe’s head onto a polar bear!”)
I think it’s fairly common and certainly easy to mentally lump wild predators together – that they are large and formidable. Formidable, yes. But not always large. For comparison: coyotes average about 40 pounds; a wolf, at least the wolves around here, is about 150 pounds. HUGE difference!
Charlie is the size of a small medium-sized dog. Not a small dog, not a big dog, but on the small end of the medium-sized-dog range. In this post I give Charlie’s measurements. And now Chloe is about the same, though she does weigh more than Charlie due to her build.
This is more of an anecdote than a comparison post, but it illustrates Charlie perfectly, and gives a great example of the coyote mind.
Those who’ve read my book may remember Mark, otherwise known as “Moustache.” He’s back in town for the season and comes by often, sometimes stopping to visit, sometimes just driving by on his way to Mike’s. It took about two weeks of consistent back-and-forth travel for Charlie to get accustomed to Mark’s diesel truck, but Charlie added it to his mental list of Safe & Known Vehicles (which consists of my truck, Mike’s trucks, and now Mark’s). When Mark drives up and Charlie is outside, Charlie runs along the fence beside him, or sits on the slope of a hill calmly watching him go by as Mark talks to him out his window.
However. Sometimes Mark has a passenger. It could be his wife, or it could be one of the hunters he is guiding. Each and every time Mark drives by with a passenger in his truck, Charlie hides himself. Mark has told his companions, “there’s a coyote in there,” and apparently everyone thinks he’s a liar. All they see is Chloe running towards them, focused and barking – she has proved herself to be a seriously awesome watchdog – and no sign of Charlie whatsoever. No ears poking up behind a sagebrush, no tail disappearing behind a hill.
This became a fascinating study for Mark, who has trained and worked with dogs his entire life. He was blown away by Charlie’s awareness and acute perception, by his human-esque calculations, by a behavior pattern that displayed cognition and discrimination the likes of which he had never seen or heard of with any dog.
He began planning ahead to observe Charlie observing him, and realized that the moment his truck came into view of Charlie’s pasture area, it took Charlie a millisecond to check out what was going on in the front seat. If he just sees Mark through the window, Charlie runs up to meet him. If he sees two forms, he immediately hides himself and flattens out, always watching but never seen, until they pass by.
Several months ago, I posted about a sudden problem with Chloe’s eye – you can read about it here. It was devastating at the time, but after seeing a specialist, I had great hope that the issue would slowly and surely resolve itself with time and care. And that is proving to be the case! Her eye is not 100% “normal” yet, but an obvious and significant healing has taken place. I am still giving her the drops in her eye, which she actually gets excited about getting, weirdo, and she behaves as if she can see out of the troubled eye. So we will continue this regimen and I believe that surgery will be totally unneccessary down the road. Thanks for all your queries and well-wishes!
What amazing generosity I’ve seen from so many. Charlie is so blessed; he has love streaming in from across the globe, a carefree life with many playmates, and dines on meat daily. In many ways, Charlie is better off, and certainly better fed, than a huge percentage of children in this country. Instead of sending donations to me, please consider making a donation in Charlie’s honor to a children’s shelter, community food service, or school lunch program for those with less to enjoy. Thank you!
Published authors have always said, “Writing a book is not the way to make a quick and easy buck” and now having published two books, I wholeheartedly agree. It’s agonizing work. Completely worthwhile, if you have a passion or compulsion for writing (I do believe one or the other is absolutely necessary), and there is always the possibility for riches, but nonetheless it is very agonizing work.
I tried to keep the basics of what I’ve learned in the past five years short and sweet, but that proved impossible. For those interested, my take on agents, queries, proposals, and how to sell your work is after the jump…..
