All Dogs go to Heaven

Yesterday I lost my childhood friend... a little poodle named Carlie. She was approximately 12 years old and suffering from a very uncomfortable tumor, which was pressing on her bladder, spine and nether regions. I haven't been able to stop thinking about all the good times we had, and how she could have had so many more. Writing and remembering are very therapeutic, so I'd like to remember her with some words & pictures.

   She was diagnosed with her tumor in the middle of last summer-2008-and we didn't think she'd make it to the the new year. I just remember being very pregnant and only hoping that she wouldn't die before she got to meet my baby. She did meet the little man after all, and in great Carlie fashion, she licked him from head to toe. Initiation into the family of course, "Welcome to the family little Lucius! Oooh, new baby scent... mmm mm mmm!"

We got Carlie from what most definitely resembled a puppy farm, and I remember picking her out with my parents. She was supposed to be a gift, a new dog for my grandmother, who wanted "a nice lap dog". Well, Carlie was most definitely not a senior citizen lap dog! She was more like Marley from Marley and Me, very unruly, wild and spontaneous. 

       (she acted like a "puppy" until the day she died)

   Carlie would literally eat a 3-6 inch circle out of a hand knit throw, loved to rummage through purses in search of hard candy or lipstick, and while pretending to be a lap dog she would gnaw the wooden buttons right off of Nana's cardigans. She got too much for my Nana to handle and she became my family's new puppy. She completed our family: my parents, our older dog Precious, our cat named Kitty and me. Now, I make Carlie out to be a terror, but she wouldn't hurt a fly.  She was the kind of dog that you truly didn't have to protect your kids from. No "Beware of Dog" here. You could pull her hair, lift her lips and get right in her face, but she'd just give you plenty of wet kisses. In fact, we always said "Sorry, she can't hold her licker".

     Before I went to college, Carlie would go outside and often come home covered in tomato sauce or carrying a chicken breast or with cat food on her breath... all from the neighbors' yards/trash. (We think it was from their trash, unless they were feeding the "poor lost poodle that comes to visit" spaghetti and fried chicken!) She also loved to eat, and roll in any animal feces she could find. Goose poop was probably her favorite, hehe :) And even though she had an obvious wild streak, and would run like the wind if you let her off her leash, she did turn into that "lap dog" my grandmother had wanted (just after you had entertained her enough during the day). 

   She was always a fan of riding in the car, too, no matter where you were headed. But her favorite place to go was to the dump... you know, where you take your trash. My father would take her almost every saturday. He would ask "Carlie, do you want to go to the dump??" ..and she would tilt her head 90' or more and then give a few barks to say "Yes! Do I ever!?!"

   Everyone else brought their pick-up trucks and Labs, German Shepherds or Rottweilers. My dad packed up the mini-van and his little toy poodle, but he was never ashamed. She held her head out the window, as if to say that she was just as much a "dump dog" as they were.

   When I left for college, I missed her terribly. Fortunately I lived in the "French House", which was easier for Carlie to visit then a regular dorm. She quickly became our mascot.. our little French poodle mascot.

                                    Carlie's Halloween costume :) she wore it like a champ

Since August, each time I saw Carlie I would say good-bye like it was our last... never knowing if it really was. She never looked sick when I saw her, and just so everyone knows, she wasn't in pain.

Everyone who met Carlie, loved her. Once you got to know her, you realized she was a little dog with a huge heart. I'm quite positive she touched many lives, not just mine.

This is how I will remember my Carlie dog... in my opinion, the best damn dog I've ever had and ever will have.

All dogs really do go to Heaven. To Carlie! Live life to the fullest, until the day you die!