New Best Friends

Sarah is a high school girl who’s having a rough year. She comes from a very wealthy family – making most their money from oil – but at the moment it’s just her and her dad in a big house, though, her father is rarely home either constantly going on business trips. Although generally considered attractive, she doesn’t have many friends and as a result feels very lonely. One bright August morning, one in which her father is home temporarily, she begs him to let her have a dog, only then can she find a little solace and connection. It doesn’t take much to get him to agree, saying no was never a problem over the phone, but in person, be it guilt or annoyance, he couldn’t say no to her. It was a little more expensive but they were able to find the exact dog that she wanted – a 5 year old male Blue Heeler named Charlie.
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A great big smile ran across Sarah’s face as her new dog Charlie came walking through the door. The previous owner, Ben, holding his leash rather taut, but not too tight. Charlie had a habit of getting very excited and hyper when meeting new friends – or in this case family members – and, thus, Ben wanted to keep him relatively at bay. He was terrified that Charlie would jump up and break something expensive, he’d never been in a house so big and lavish as this one, and he didn’t want to be on the hook for replacing something god knows how expensive. Unfortunately, Ben was moving out of North Carolina and couldn’t care for Charlie anymore, he was a military man and decided it’d be best to find Charlie a good home rather than take him across the country.

Charlie was the most beautiful Blue Heeler Sarah had ever seen, somehow the pictures online still didn’t do him proper justice. He was a dark blue/gray, a coloring almost as if he were a black dog covered in snow, with red patches here and there, and the most adorable black mask around each of his eyes. He was the perfect size for her, herself not being very tall, only around 5’1″ with a runner’s body, he stood not too tall but not too small either. And he was well trained, certainly not a service dog but he could understand simple commands, he was clearly home taught. He was all around the dog she had dreamed of plus much more.

Sarah had decided two months prior that she needed a dog. At school she wasn’t very popular, much less popular than she once was – never being the belle of the ball per say, her social status wasn’t too tall to come crumbling down. Going to school in rural NC, her previous friends didn’t take too kindly to the news that Sarah believed herself to be gay, some stuck around for a while but it didn’t take too long for her to become mostly alone save for some passing “hellos” with few. She did her research on dog breeds to find which one she wanted before coming down to a few choices, mainly between a Blue Heeler and a Beagle. After looking through some pictures she found Charlie and was sold immediately. “He’s unbelievably perfect!” she exclaimed upon seeing the ad on Craigslist. She contacted Ben and he agreed to hold onto Charlie until Sarah’s father came home – he’s always on business trips out of town, leaving Sarah mostly home alone except for the occasional housekeeper a few times a week.

Sarah and her father approached Ben and Charlie who were let in by the housekeeper. Upon reaching them Sarah immediately fell to her knees and embraced Charlie, who was more than happy to reward her with love in return. Although she didn’t notice, both Ben and her father instantly broke out into laughter at the sight, they both knew right then and there that they had made the right decision uniting the two of them. The four of them walked to the backyard where it was safe to remove the leash, and allow the two men to finish off the transaction. Sarah tasked herself with showing Charlie around the yard, it was impossible to say which of them was more excited for the experience.

After the deal was done, Ben was paid and he tracked down the new best friends to say his final farewells to Charlie before going on his way. It was quite easy to tell that the two were close and this decision didn’t come easy for Ben, but sometimes the circumstances aren’t right. In such cases you’re lucky to find a new owner of the caliber of the family he found.

It was late July and summer was winding down, only about a month left until school starts back up, but at this moment that was hardly what was on Sarah’s mind.