Charlie Taco is our English Chocolate Lab. He’s four years old, born on Mother’s Day during the pandemic (2020). Though he is a “pandemic puppy,” my family had been planning to get a dog that year anyway… Charlie was born in Arvada, Colorado, and one of the activities my family looked forward to when the world was locked down was visiting our Taco Dog and his littermates before he was old enough for us to take him home.

Charlie’s first months with us were… adventurous. He ate the siding off the house we were renting. He detached the cable from the house, killing our internet. He chewed through the power cord on the heat pump, rendering the air conditioning and heater inoperative. He escaped his crate one night and ate at least four games for my son’s Nintendo Switch. He ate piles of red dyed mulch. And yet, he survived, and so did we.

Through all the drama of puppyhood, he also learned his commands (some of which he follows when he feels like it), and can play dead better than any dog I’ve seen if you have a treat in your hand and pretend to shoot him with a finger gun. He also became a great walk companion and an eager car rider. Now that the puppy phase is over, he’s a reliable companion and generally doesn’t eat things he shouldn’t, though we suggest to guests that they leave their belongings at jaw level at their own peril. One thing Charlie cannot resist is shoes. But we love him enough to overlook the occasional lace-chewing.

When I needed an animal companion for Dahlia Vale, Charlie suggested it should be him, and I agreed. He’s my writing partner anyway, and who better to ensure I captured the heart of a chocolate lab properly?