Obituary of Charlee Gerenza
This morning while I was getting my day started, I heard a knock at the door. Answering the knock, I was taken back by who it was. It was a neighbor a few doors down. She asked me if anything was wrong? I said why do you ask?? She said for 10 years I have been walking past our house to either be greeted by a barking bundle of joy or hearing him inside the house wanting to come out and say hi… I asked her if she had a minute and wanted to tell her our story. We sat on the front porch, and I started….
Ten years ago, on 11/8/11, my family wanted to get our dog Eli a present for his 1st
Birthday… So, we loaded up the truck traveled out to a little farmhouse in New Holland, PA to find him
a friend. When we arrived, we had 4-5 puppies to choose from? Eli wanted nothing to do with the picking process and quite honestly, he would have rather had an ice cream cake for his Birthday rather than a new brother. After 30-40 minutes the selection was made. For some reason, one of the pups just shined a little brighter to the selection committee. Our mission was complete and now it was back home to give this little bundle of joy a name. Clint, LT, Toby Payton to name a few- nothing jumped out …. Later that day we brought our no-name puppy to a Peterson pool picnic. Steven Koons looked at him and said, “Mr. Gerenza that dog looks like a Charlee” At the time I had no idea what a Charlee looked like or even acted. The Phillies had a good team coached by Charlee Manual and the best pitcher was Cliff Lee- So Charlee got his own unique name “Charlee” .
If you Google “Charlee” you will get the following:
Charlee – Alpha male dog, Born 8/12/11 – 7/3/21. Stands 12-14 inches off the ground, barks at everything that walks, runs, bikes, drives, or flies. Never misses a tree he doesn’t like to pee on, smiles, sits up like a child, falls asleep when his belly is rubbed, sits on the 10th step of your foyer stairs (Guarding you from the above walkers, runners and vehicles) , sleeps on the couch while on guard as well, plays fetch for one throw of the ball and the game is over, cools off in the stream when playing, loves to take a rides in car, never walks past a dirty hamper without taking something out, always takes inventory of the bathroom trash cans, sleeps at your feet, snoops for Christmas presents, loves people , loves his dog friends and cousins (Jamison, Chief, Bo, Smarty, Roxy, Daisy and of course the twinkle in his eye Chloe girl…) – all except that POS Collie up the street, loves toys even if they are 3 times his size, loves taking walks , has a very distinctive long happy bark/howl that will make anyone chuckle, loves to cuddle, looks to go to sleep at 8:30 at night so he can recharge for the next day of fun, loves to lick , loves to lick, loves to lick…., always making you smile and laugh. Loved his brother Eli like no other…
On July 3rd of 2021 while celebrating the 4th of July weekend Charlee was a bit off in the morning of the 3rd. He just was not himself. We chose to take him with us boating on the Chesapeake. He was in good hands for his boat photo shoot being the Alpha dog he was perched right at the bow of the boat wind in his smiling face. As the day went on, he seemed to slow down. We laid him on the helm seat and comforted him as he took his last breath. He left us with a smile on his face knowing he left behind more memories than you can count. The walls of our house will echo his bark forever. Charlee was one of a kind and will be missed by many. We all love you so much “Charlee Boy” ……. RIP Charlee …. Thank you very very much for all the memories you left behind… You will never be forgotten. Love you “Little Man”
Your Family…
