A Hug From Charlie

by Kathy Crockett

Title

A Hug From Charlie

Artist

Kathy Crockett

Medium

Drawing - Colored Pencil

Description

They say a picture tells a thousand words... obviously I don't know what that means!! A few months before leaving for college in 2004, my daughter found a kitty in a box on the side of the road with a sign saying Free to a Good Home. He was about six months old and introduced to us parents with the first name "Charles", two middle names I no longer remember and similarly, a forgotten last name. "But you can call him "Charlie" she said. Her father immediately responded "That's not necessary. We will never be that close. He will be "Charles" to me!" We told her she could keep him in her room until they left for the apartment she planned to get for college. (Of course she changed her plan for living arrangements and Charles was not allowed in her new accomodations and lived the rest of his life with us!) Nevertheless, she raised the most amazing cat I've ever known, and I had cats through my entire childhood. She taught him tricks which he performed as faithfully as any dog you ever knew! Prime among these were when asked "How big is Charlie?" he laid on his tummy, stretched his front paws all the way out above his head and his back legs and tail straight out as far behind him as possible and held the pose until told "Roll over Charlie!" which he did, exactly as a dog would. After my daughter left, he trained us in MANY ways! The most important of which was that as soon as we FINALLY returned from work, we were to instantly sit on a recliner, legs straight out, cover our work clothes with a lap blanket, legs to collar bone, and let him hug us until each of us was starved, at which time we could feed him and begin making our dinner. 🙂 He stretched his hug from our thighs to the collar bone and melted into it very simarly to a newborn baby! It was a WONDERFUL way to release most of the strains of the workday! One day I held my phone out to the side and snapped the reference photo for this drawing. Charlie's last trick was living with us until 2020. I didn't know cats could live so long! He was a blessing to Bob and I, and I stiill miss those sometimes "irritating" marathon hug sessions. What a special kitty!

Uploaded

August 18th, 2022

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