In Loving memory of our Dog Candy

Words can only help to heal the pain my family and I are feeling as I strike the keys below. My heart aches, my thoughts are filled with all the memories of my first dog Candy.

It started out as a grand evening, celebrating the arrival of my Daughters 2nd birthday. My wife and I had taken her to friendlys where we enjoyed three scoop sundae's. When we returned to our abode, we were greeted by Candy, wagging her tail, happy to have us back home. Who would ever have thought that within the next couple of hours my sweet Candy would go from a healthy vibrant German Shepard, to a bloated, suffering, animal.

It all began after midnight, the nightmare that will haunt me forever, her life taken from me within hours, by a horrible condition called "Bloat." This @#$%^ thing came without warning. Earlier this eve, I was at my computer writing, my wife and daughter fast asleep in the bedroom together after our birthday bash, and Candy was by my side resting. And then it happened. She stood up and started to vomit a white marshmallowy substance that I've never seen before. I cleaned it up, thinking she was just having another sour stomach attack that has always appeared on occassion, and within a few hours of vomiting up her food, she'd be back to her normal loving self. But not tonight. Something just wasn't right.

I watched my Shepard begin to go from one area to the next, whining, seemingly uncomfortable, and a bit distressed. But this has also occured with her in the past, suffering anxiety attacks for whatever reason, and eventually she would calm down. I always said she was a nervous nilly. Nonetheless, tonight it seemed to progress.

She began pacing back and forth, now howling, a sure sign by me that she was in extreme pain. I tried again to push it off, thinking she was just having a really bad stomach ache. What was I to know, she's been down this road before, to a lesser degree. But when my wife was awaken by her bouts of howling, she feared the worst.

She called out to the Animal Emergency Hospital, a staff member telling her point blank, your dog maybe experiencing bloat, a fatal condition if not attended to immediately. And so we panicked. At this time however, she was outside, after I let her out back because she insisted on going. She was howling out in the dark like an injured wolf, and all I could see as she approached was a stomach that looked distended.

She ran under the stairs and by now, I was unable to retrieve her because she was becoming weaker not wanting to get up, which I later found out by the vet, that this @#$%^ condition takes the dogs insides, specifically their stomach and intestines, and twists them all up. This causes the the air to be blocked, blowing up their stomach so it grabs hold of their attached spleen and rips at it, and then these organs begin to press on the ateries to the brain and heart, causing a drop in blood pressure, which in turn sets the heart up into an arythemmia.

Well, I was done watching her suffer, my wife and I dragged her out from under our stairs outside and brought her back in the house. By now, her sides were pushing out so far she looked like she swallowed a #$%@^ huge ball. Candy then did something I'll never forget, she responded to a final command.

"Candy, let's go for a ride, you always love going for a ride with daddy right." It worked. She stood up, wobbling though, but walked with me out to the car. She jumped in, I started the engine and we were at the Animal Emergency within a few minutes.

I parked, opened the door to the back seat, and there was my sweet precious everything, in laboured breathing, her @#$% stomach even bigger then before. The staff came out and gave me a hand putting her on the gurney, we wheeled her in and the doctor looked at her, grabbed his stethescope and listened. And listened. He then looked over to me and told me the words I just wasn't ready to hear.

"I'm sorry, she's passed," he said.

I just stood there holding her leash, in shock, that this !@#$ condition called bloat, took a healthy
8 year old loving , wouldn't hurt anyone, German Shepard, and snuffed the life out of her in under two hours !@#$ time.

Please, anyone with large breed dogs, google bloating in dogs and do your research. Although it is almost impossible to follow every rule, especially if they are predisposed with this, knowledge is the key to possibly, and I say this liberelly because there is a 70% chance that it could come back again, while your away or sleeping and steal your loved one from under your nose. Being informed is better then getting caught with, well you know. It doesn't hurt to get whatever information you can.

Unfortunately, as I was unaware until having spent three hours in the wee hours before sunrise today googling "Bloat in Dogs," that it's the second leading cause of death in dogs, after Cancer.

Son of a bitch, who would of known.

Rest in peace Candy we all miss you and you'll have a place in my heart until it takes its last beat!!!
Your proud owner and daddy,

Charles Day

"Scratch" didn't make the cut

Oh well, my first rejection email for my latest story. Time to keep my chin up and see where else it may fit.

The Case Of The Missing Pumpkins YA Novel in progress

Hey everyone,

After sending my pitch for "The Case Of The Missing Pumpkins" to a yet to be announced publisher, (keeping it my little secret for now) he thought it sounded like something he may be looking for (currently only 30,000 words) but prefered I bring it up to novel status before consideration, which means I have to go back to the drawing board with this one and add some new plots and stretch it out longer. I'm ok with this because when I wrote this Novella, a young adult mystery/thriller, I just wrote down what my characters wanted to share, never realizing when it would end. And there were some plots I didn't enter at the time.

Now that I have revisited this manuscript, that has sat collecting dust for a year or two, I see that Nick, lead character, would enjoy some more time telling his story, and I have a few new twists I'd like to add, just to give him more detective work to do. And so here I go again, back to Halloween Eve, where all the pumpkins on 14 year old Nick's street have disappeared, taken from porches and steps. Could the mean old lady, Mrs. needlewhitter at the corner house, and her mutt be the culprits? Or possibly the neighborhood bully, Lou and his chronies, who've had it out for poor Nick since the story began. Rest assured, whoever it is, Nick and his desire to be the best detective there is one day, is on a mission to find out. Little does he know however, that Halloween will turn out to be the most terrifiying night for him, when everyone's dressed in costumes, and the real suspect could be one of them lurking about in his neighborhood!!

More on this in the next coming weeks!!

Charles Day

My latest Short Story "Scratch" is finished

Now the painstaking task of editing, rewriting, chopping away, and finally polishing off before sending it out to find a home. I have a few publishers in mind, but must send it out to one at a time, allowing them to read and decide on whether or not it's something they want. My first choice is an anthology book titled "Fearology 2: Beware All Animals Great and Small" with the "Library of Horror Press."

My story "Scratch" is about an aging, mean old man, who despises anything with fur. And these little critters who've decided to nest in his home, have unfortunately found the wrong place to gather their nuts for the harsh winter to come. Or is it their lucky day?

But this mean old man, Al Fudrucker has a past, one that is going to catch up with him, and these critters are going to play a major role.

If you like a good thrill ride down the unknown, then Scratch may be right up your alley. Nonetheless, be forewarned my curious readers, this is not for those who like to go to bed with the night light on.

I'll let you know when it finds a home!!!

Scratch must be told.

Charles Day
Aka Charlie In The Box

Looking for a writer to share in a Novella

Hey fellow writers,

I'm looking for someone to do a novella, but the submission requirements for this involve having two stories that in some way inter-relate, two separate authors, 20,000 words min for each. I've already been working on my story, but I need a partner. My Publisher, Wicked East Press, is behind this, and there is a deadline. So anyone interested, let me know.

"Melting Snow" to be published with Blood Bound Books

Hello all,

This has been a good month for me, finally seeing some of my short stories published in upcoming anthology books. My most recent publication, "Melting Snow" a short story I wrote last month, will soon be available with Blood Bound Book Publishers, in their upcoming anthology book titled "Seasons in the Abyss" where spring, summer, fall, and winter will have stories dedicated to each of these seasons. They are still working on the cover art. But as soon as they have it ready, I'll be sure to post it for you.

Thanks to all who've supported me through all my writing endeavors.

Respectively,
Charles Day
AKA Charlie In The Box

I'm so happy to have my short story published with Wicked East Press, in their upcoming anthology book titled "A Cup Of Joe Coffee House Flash Fiction Collection" Edited by Jessica Weiss. My story is "Bret's Lovely Garden." The book has a tentative release date for Dec 2010.

And I'm proud to have my short story "Am I Crazy?" published last week on Microhorror.com, a real cool site for short and suspensful fiction always under 666 words.