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“Everyone knew Charlie,” says Anne Evans. “He went everywhere all over town.”

In the past few days, since the golden retriever was put to sleep, it’s Charlie’s very Oriental life that Anne and others are remembering.

Charlie, the golden retriever who belonged to Brantley Norman, Jr, but who was befriended by many neighbors.

One place you’d often see Charlie, she says, was the back of the white pickup truck Brantley Norman, Jr drove. It was Brantley who took in Charlie when he was just a puppy about 12 years ago. For many of those past dozen years, Charlie would wait in the truck bed while Brantley worked at the family’s restaurant, or, on Sundays, outside of church. Charlie was also no stranger to Brantley’s crabbing boat or trips down the creeks.

Charlie riding in the back of the pickup truck.

Charlie traveled widely around Oriental on his own four paws, as well. His territory, a sizeable radius around Blackwell Point Loop Road. Some neighbors put out bowls of water for him. Others fed him.

“That’s why he got so heavy,” Anne Evans laughs. “We put him on a diet!”

In the past few years, Anne and her husband Les Evans provided a second home for Charlie while Brantley was busy with work. By then, Charlie wasn’t traveling in to town as much. His sight was going. And his hearing. At the Evans home, he found a second harbor.

Charlie was ailing with cancer and on Friday he was put to sleep. He was in good company til the end. With him in Dr. Sherri Hicks office were Brantley Norman, Jr., his son Mark and Anne and Les Evans.

At the Evans house, their other dog, Biscuit, has been whining since Friday and Charlie’s departure.

Posted Monday February 15, 2010 by Melinda Penkava

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