This story was excerpted from Jessica Camerato’s Nationals Beat newsletter. To checked out the complete newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it routinely in your inbox.
Michael Chavis keeps his locker filled with shoes choices when he concerns the ballpark, however there is one set he gravitates to one of the most. Among the tennis shoes and cleats are brown slippers that bring him a solid smile.
That’s since each time he takes a look at them, he sees the face of his dog printed amongst a background of dog bones and paws.
“Everybody who knows me knows how much I love Charlie,” Chavis said.
Charlie is Chavis’ and his other half, Sarah’s, Great Dane-Rhodesian Ridgeback mix rescue dog, whose labels consist of “The Bigs.” She is at the center of their world — a travel friend who likes taking long car flights around the baseball map, a fan of sun tanning and a passionate catch partner.
“When people meet her, she’s just super affectionate and super loving,” Chavis said. “She’s big and intimidating, so people are kind of like, ‘Oh my goodness’ and she has a mean bark, but she’s such a cuddle bug and so nice. I love her.”
Charlie made the journey from Fort Myers, Fla., to Boston when Chavis bet the Red Sox (and got a picture inside the Green Monster at Fenway Park); she made the journey from West Palm Beach, Fla., to Washington, D.C., this season. Being an animal in a baseball family, Charlie has actually likewise gotten among her owners’ preferred activities.
“Charlie had never played fetch, but Sarah and I love playing catch,” Chavis said. “We have a tennis ball that comes with a sticky pad, and we’ll play catch with it … One day, we dropped it and she ran and got it and brought it back to us. We were like, ‘Wait, do you want to play catch?’ She’ll only play with that ball because she knows that’s how we play, and she wanted to be part of it.”
Chavis keeps a Polaroid of him and Charlie, taken throughout Spring Training, taped to his locker in the Nationals clubhouse. The slippers — a Christmas present from a family friend whose dog-printed pajamas captured Chavis’ attention — travel to home and roadway video games.
“You can’t move too fast in them because they’re a little bigger than I would like, but she makes me happy when I look down at them,” he said. “They’re actual slippers instead of slides or sandals, so they’re kind of cozy. It feels like I’m in the house. It’s my comfort thing.”
