Twas the night before Charkmas and I was already in bed With Charlie’s black butt against the side of my head Marco curled betwixt my short legs where he is known to head to Making three roasting chestnuts where there should have been two Nama, Bilbo and Titus making the rest of the crew The inmates of the Casa seemed to be so much less few. With Mom in her jammies and I in my…

When I was just a sprout, I read a book that altered my life forever, "The Education of Little Tree". It is the autobiography of Forrest Carter, an orphaned boy who was adopted and educated by his Cherokee grandparents. Although it started out as a just a great story, actually winning the Newbery Award, the book became one that influenced me greatly for the rest of my life. It managed to seamlessly weave into the…

The story of Nama... A few months ago, I was doing a early morning home inspection in one of the more "interesting" parts of town. You know what I'm talking about, the type of neighborhood where you might consider strapping up for reason A: for a modicum of protection, or B: just so you "fit in", fashion wise. I was pulling out (of the neighborhood), when I saw something tiny and white streak across the…

The New Mexico Backcountry Discovery Route, or NMBDR, is a 1300 mile combination of jeep trails, fire roads and single track across the most remote regions of New Mexico. Starting in Dell City, TX and ending at Antonito, CO, the BDR crosses mountain ranges, desert vistas, and every other land feature imaginable(but obviously no swamps), and usually takes 1-2 weeks to complete, based on weather and other acts of God. A few years ago, Zach,…

Nama here; due to my impressive ears, it is suspected that I have some Pharaoh hound in my bloodline. If this is true, I may have to begin lobbying to have my name changed from "Nama" to "Nefertiti"; isn't this is how Charlie handled it when she began to realize her own claims towards royalty? Suddenly a simple name such as "Charlie Bravo" seemed vaguely inappropriate for a dog bent on global domination, so she…

That light at the end of the tunnel ain't a train... It seems like lately there has been an inordinate number of followers of Charlie's page who have recently lost canine and feline family members. Or it may be that FB's algorithm has deemed it necessary to share this info with me for whatever reason; who knows why that they do what they do. There has been so many sad posts flooding my feed that…

Yo, Dad! MacDuff? Is that you? How is this even possible? Well, Dad, you've been trying too hard to look and listen with your ears, when you should have been listening with your heart. Alright then; let's say, just for the sake of argument, that this is really happening and I didn't just get some bad mushrooms on my pizza. I've lost many "special" dogs before, and this communication from the far side of the…