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In Memory of Carie - July 3, 2009
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Since Carie is a dog (but obviously not an ordinary dog) and since I am founder of Friends of the Phonograph and one of the people that Carie chose to bless, I have the honor of documenting her remarkable string of attending Friends of the Phonograph Birthday parties and saying a few words about her life. She was with us for 13 Phonograph birthdays so other than my wife and myself, she has the consecutive attendance record. It is not surprising that she would want to attend all of those parties because Carie was that kind of dog: loyal, always ready for the next activity and respectful of the Terrier's place in Phonographia (i.e., Victor and RCA's Trademark Fox Terrier, Nipper). She never got to eat any cake but she loved seeing who had come to visit. She barked when she heard the doorbell but after a few sniffs she had a new friend. Though most of her generation didn't grow up with record players in the home Carie fortunately lived in a house where there were always a few Edison's around and she knew that music could miraculously come out of a horn with a few winds of the crank. There was a rival dog that Carie had to compete with all of her life and looking back I should have been more considerate about how many times I invoked the name of "Nipper" in our house. My oldest grandson and I used to play a game called "scissors" and when I got him between my legs I wouldn't let him go until he said the secret word which was usually "Nipper" or "phonograph" (as he was young and I was trying to teach him some phonograph history). I should have chosen the secret word to be "Carie" more often since Carie was the secret to so much joy and so many good memories. |
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I do think that if there is reincarnation and if soul's do evolve and move to the next level after living a good life, then Carie's level would have to be pretty high. Perhaps Nipper came back as Carie and that explained her interest in the Phonograph and her perfect attendance at Phonograph Birthday parties. She was a good girl and we'll think of her every day. And we'll certainly give her an extra thought each December 6 on the Phonograph's birthday as she was a unique Friend of the Phonograph.
Carie was our companion for many activities besides the annual Phonograph birthday party. She came on car trips to the Tetons and Yellowstone, to the North Carolina beach, to Estes and the Rocky Mountains and to our many trips to Lincoln to visit family and friends. She was born in Hastings, Nebraska on January 8, 1996. Her father was Sir William Konrad of FX. Her mother was "I Love Lucy She's a Keeper." We got her on March 3, 1996 when we lived in Lincoln and that is where she grew up. I think she always considered Lincoln her home as she had a big yard and the kids were young and she had a big deck she loved to leap from.
Carie loved being outdoors, always helping with barbecuing, trotting out to the grill and waiting patiently while I'd go in the house and perhaps not return for 10 minutes while the grill warmed up. She'd still be there sitting by the grill when I brought out the food to cook. If I needed to do some work in the front yard I'd return later and she would still be by the back door that I had exited from, patiently waiting to join me for more work in the backyard. She was a great gardening companion and would plop down next to me while I pulled weeds or planted flowers. She was alittle hard on the Asiatic Lilies because I unfortunately planted them in an area of the yard that she seemed to need access to if she heard someone over on the walking trail on the other side of the fence. I was always amazed that she even knew someone with a dog was over there as it was quite a distance and she didn't have a line of sight to the path. Even in her later years, when she didn't have very good eyes, she knew, just like so many other things that apparently only a dog knows.
Carie lived in four houses and in two of the four houses there was no fence when we moved in so we had to install one. She lived a sheltered life, which is another way of saying she couldn't be trusted to wander around the neighborhood on her own. When we got Carie we read in a dog book that said Terriers are "relentless" ball chasers, but we really didn't know the meaning of relentless until we introduced her to a ball. She could chase one for hours. In the end Carie taught us so much more than simply a new definition of "relentless," and for all of those lessons and all of that love, we'll always be grateful and we'll always remember our "good girl."
