It's been over two months now, and I know that I will never forget anything about Carter...Every curve of his body, the tattoo in his ear, his perfectly white teeth, the little lump on his chest, the long whisker on his cheek, what it was like to clip his nails, the sound he made while he slept, the black spot on his nose, the expression in his eyes, the cowlick on his back, how he swayed when he walked, how he whimpered when he was excited, how he ate his food, how he woke me up if he had to go outside, how patient he was, how perfect he was...

 

I could go on and on.  God, I miss you Carter!  It will never be the same without you.

Carter never did learn how to lift his leg to pee, and I loved that about him!

 

I don't know if he was just too lazy, or if it just never occurred to him to try, or both.

It's so hard to even know where to start with memories of Carter.  I went with Kari to Canada to pick out the "perfect" pup.  Little did we realize how very perfect he would be.  Two weeks later Kari and I went back to Canada to pick Carter up and bring him home.  What a trip with a young golden retriever pup sitting on our laps all the way back to Farmington Hills!  Carter was a very calm pup who loved even then to come when we would call "puppy, puppy, puppy!!!"  When he was older and talked to me on the phone, Carter answered with such enthusiasm when I called "puppy, puppy, puppy!!!"    Actually, Carter did almost everything with enthusiasm.  I've never had doggy kisses given with so much excitement!  He was such a happy dog.  And as much as Kari loved Carter, you knew that he loved her just as much.  There was a special bond between the two of them. 

When Carter was a puppy, I took him to obedience school and he learned a number of things, one of which was "leave it."  This turned out to be an extremely valuable lesson since all of my other dogs turned out to be slow and picky eaters.  They prefer to nibble at their food, while Carter always inhaled his.  Back when I just had Carter and Maggie, Maggie would occasionally leave some of her food or drop peices for Carter to eat.  One time I remember feeding them, then going to sit on the couch to watch TV.  About an hour later I realized that Carter was not in the room.  When I went to go look for him, I found him standing over Maggie's bowl and drooling.  Maggie had left one morsel of food, but Carter wouldn't eat it until I said it was "OK."

From the time Carter was little, he liked to chase his tail.  He would go in circles until finally he caught it, then proceed to do somersaults (see picture in slide show) while holding his tail in his mouth.  His final move was to lie flat on his back in exhaustion.  Over time, when I told him to "bang," this is the cascade of moves he would do. 

 

Sometimes Carter like to chase his tail while laying flat on his back too.  He would wiggle his butt back and forth, and bite at his tail in the process.  Sometimes he would catch it, sometimes not, but he always thought it was a really fun game.