Charlie - REPete hasn't been around here for several years - his choice - but I stayed in touch with him after he quit posting here. Several weeks ago he had fallen and was hospitalized, he made it back home and he was doing better. He had been having health problems for the past year. I last talked to him about 10 days ago.
I was just cruising by 24 HC to see who was calling who what as I tend to do maybe once a day for amusement, and I ran across the post at the link provided. Charlie has passed...... Another one claimed by cancer.
https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbth...ics/14362469/1
If you knew Charlie, he was a dog man first and foremost and placed a lot of faith and love with his animals that were his family. They were his companions both while hunting and while running his trap lines. At his passing, he had only one dog left. He was single and lived in Idaho, and in my book he was one of the better than good ones that you run across occasionally in life. Although I never met him personally, you could tell just by talking with him that he was the real deal... I will miss our occasional phone chats which always made me smile both during and after the chat.
He enjoyed an occasional wine, a more regular whisky, and his beloved PBR beer. I'm going to raise a wine glass in his honor and memory later this evening and I might see if I can round up a 6-pack of PBR tomorrow here in south Texas and tip one in his honor. He would have been 68 on Christmas Day and I had planned to call him to check up on his health and to wish him Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas on Christmas Eve afternoon. I'll miss not being able to make that call, but on the positive side, he is no longer dealing with his health issues that had drained him.
RIP, RePete.
-BCB