Karsen

On Tuesday - June 9th - my sweet baby girl, Karsen, went to puppy heaven. I am extremely sad that she is gone but she was so sick and there was nothing that could be done to help her. I am very thankful that I was able to see her and lay with her before she passed away. I already miss her tremendously and I know that feeling will not go away for a very long time. She was my partner in crime for 11 years. I got her when she was only 5 weeks old - it was the summer between my sophomore and junior year at A&M. Karsen can only be described as "one of a kind" - she was "queen bee" and VERY strong willed! I loved her so much and I knew all along that letting her go was going to be so hard. I can honestly say this is the hardest thing I have ever done.

I have found some pictures of Karsen that I would like to share with all of you that really show her personality and just how special she was to me and my entire family. There are so many more pictures that I have but this is all I can find right now (at 1:00 am in the morning!).

Like most labs, this young lady never missed a meal and would bark at me in the mornings and evenings if I hadn't fed her yet and she was hungry. She would sit down at the bottom of the stairs next to the closet where we keep the food and bark - loudly - telling us it was her dinner time. Karsen was also the best dish-licker in America! She had it down to an art - the trick is to either carry the dish to a surface where it won't slide and then lay down next to it or she would stand and put one paw down in the dish to keep it from moving while she licked it spotless. She was so funny yet very serious about licking plates/dishes.

Karsen has been going to Colorado with us since the summer of '98. She loved it up there - summer or winter, she was a happy girl at the cabin!

This was her hang out place behind the cabin - the chipmunks would hide out in the logs that were on the ground and Karsen would be on chipmunk lookout from the moment she got out of the car!


Karsen's most favorite sleeping position - otherwise known as the "dead cockroach" position. I kid you not, she would sleep like this ALL the time!

I know that labs are known for being laid back and good with kids. Karsen fit this description to the "T". You could pretty much do anything to this dog and she would just lay there - dress her up, stick a helmet on her head, lay on her, put sunglasses on her, etc. She was so good with kids and I know that my cousins are really going to miss her. They each have a little yellow lab stuffed animal named Karsen - I hope they will keep it forever in memory of her.

I had really hoped that Karsen and Wyatt would get to play together and be buddies. Wyatt would have loved Karsen and Karsen would have loved Wyatt especially when he will drop food off his highchair and she would get to clean it up! I am very sad that he will never know her.

Today I came back from CS and tried to tell Max that his sister was no longer with us. He licked my face and then moved on quickly to tearing apart a toy - I know that he will miss her very much. Max would spend hours laying next to Karsen and just licking her face and ears! Sounds gross but Karsen loved it because she would move closer to him and turn her head over so he would lick the other side of her face. They were two peas in a pod - my sister would call them the yellow dogs and they got into their fair share of trouble together. Karsen was the ring leader and Max just followed along!

Max is really going to miss her once he realizes she is just not on vacation to CS. I am extremely glad that we have Cheyenne so that Max will have a friend.

Karsen was just a "cool" dog and I am just really going to miss her. I am going to miss how she would carry her leash in her mouth when we would go on walks/runs, how she knew when I was sad and would give me sweet kisses, how she had to be in the same room as me and if she wasn't she would bark non-stop (the barking part was annoying but needing to be with me was endearing), how she and Max would fight over sticks in the water and almost cause each other to drown (absolutely hilarious), how she and Max would play with each other and she would always flip herself over, how she would go into a panic if she even saw the bike pump or air compressor, how she would take stuff out the doggy door to eat when no one was home and then totally give it away that she did something she shouldn't have by hiding and then her ears would go flat and her tail would wag like crazy, there are too many other things for me to list.

I am sad to be without my Karsen - I loved her to pieces and will miss her tremendously.