My name is Charlie Brown. I was born at the shelter. I am not a purebred. I am a mixed breed.

I was born at the Kanawha/Charleston Humane Association Animal Shelter. My mother is a purebred Australian Shepherd with beautiful blue merle markings. My father had to be a Border Collie since I look like a purebred. I am black and white.

My adopter put me in obedience training when I was five months old. During the first class, my owner was approached by a person who said, "Do you know that you have the best looking border collie in this state?" She was really surprised when my owner informed her that I am a mixed breed.

Well there is no mistake. My owner is the director of the animal shelter where I was born. I am a mixed breed. On graduation day, the President of the Border Collie club came to see me. he said he had to see the dog that he had heard so much about. He was very impressed and astonished with my appearance.

Not all dogs that appear to be purebred are purebred!!

A Tribute to Charlie! 10/15/91 - 5/10/03

Wonderful Charlie will continue to be an inspiration to all of us who work daily to save these beautiful animals. He has been our mascot on the FOHO site since our webpage was developed 4 years ago. He belonged to Sylvia and Vaughn Shafer. Vaughn writes of his and Sylvia's loss of Charlie, "From all of his symptoms he succumbed from hemangiosarcoma which is a highly aggressive cancer I had never heard of it before but have found out a lot about it from the internet. It is called the "silent killer." A dog can have and die from it sometimes before you realize anything is wrong. Of course you probably know of it. From practically the day we adopted him until his death he was my dog, or I was his human, whichever. There is a very BIG empty spot in this house now. He was born October 15, 1991, and died May 10, 2003. We miss him."

We extend our sympathy to the Shafer's who opened their home to this wonderful dog. Charlie's picture will remain on our site as a tribute to all of those animals throughout West Virginia that are being saved daily by people like Vaughn and Sylvia. The pleasure and joy they bring into our lives is known to all of us who love and have saved dogs like Charlie.

Check out the link above to read more about this terrible disease that took Charlie's life.