A Tribute To: "The Great Carsoni"

 The Setting: Once upon a time, way back in 1992 (when Parental Unit was actually young), she had just lost her dear mother and was recently divorced-the perfect time to finally get the doggie of her childhood dreams-a Wire Fox Terrier.

The Inspiration: When Parental Unit was just a kid, her older sister Renee (that's my Aunt Renee the photographer) had a beautiful, Steiff Mohair hand puppet of a...you guessed it, Wire Fox Terrier! So from when she was a tot, Parental Unit wanted one of those adorable dogs (but only breathing and not stuffed). She now has custody of Renee's puppet and its baby:

                     Here's another picture...

                                And one more.

The Name: The baby Wire Fox was 8 weeks old and ready to pick up during the first week of May 1992, the same week that Johnny Carson retired. So she named the little pooch, Carson, to honor the man who made her laugh every night for almost 30 years (her mom let her stay up late and watch him when she was only six!).
So on a warm spring evening, Parental Unit and her good friend, Debra, made the four hour round trip to the breeder to pick up the little fella. Here's a picture from that night:

                              Cute as a button!


    Now here's a few pictures of Mr. Carson in his prime:

             Eating the flowers (Much more of that to come!)

Ready for his walk (notice the one ear up, the other down-no show dog was he!)

               A hike in the woods (we love this photo!)

                     Playing with his favorite rag toy

And in his later years, putting up with you know who! Yep, that's Bella, the same cat who tortures me today!

The Crazy Years: But...we're not through yet! The crazy stuff started when Carson turned 8, and Parental Unit had just decided to wing it for awhile and quite her full-time job. First, Carson had to have one knee replaced, then the next year, the other knee. Little did Parental Unit know that those were the really inexpensive surgeries!

Then over the next few years came the emergency stomach surgeries to remove:
_ a ball and other sundry stuff that the surgeon handed to Parental Unit in a large plastic bag;
_ one really large piece of mulch;
__ a beer bottle cap (with this one, the surgeons were taking bets on what kind of beer it was-can you guess?)
__ then another emergency visit when Carson dug into the handyman's bag and chewed on some sort of glue or cement that stuck his jaws together-his teeth were literally glued together-not kidding! The vet had to anesthetize him to scrape it off (they gave him a complimentary teeth cleaning while they were at it!)
Yep, I'm told that Carson swallowed everything that wasn't nailed down-and even some stuff that was!
(Needless to say, Parental Unit is relieved that I just grab and chew, but not swallow.)
In case you're wondering, these surgeries totalled $11,000-Parental Unit is still paying them off :-)

Despite these traumas, Carson was fine until a bit after his 16th birthday, when kidney failure finally claimed him. (For old times sake, Parental Unit coughed up another $1000 for a week of dialysis to make sure it wasn't just an infection that was causing his kidneys to fail.) The old boy went to the Rainbow Bridge on April 18, 2008. That morning he had a resurgence of strength-long enough to eat a whole banana (his favorite food treat) and a ton of biscuits.

We'll leave you with a picture of a card that Parental Unit received many years ago. She keeps it on her desk as a reminder of exactly who the problem really is...

May our dear Carson be running and playing and... eating many bananas over the Rainbow Bridge. We love him.

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