01/22/2015
I don’t plan to go through this by getting busy doing things or otherwise distracting myself but instead, by remembering every detail about Carmen and reflecting on every precious moment we had together. I know that Carmen had her own independent connection with many family members and friends. If you have any memories of her, please post to this page for all to see.
My Memories of Carmen
Early Childhood:
• Carmen was born to parents belonging to my good friends Rose and Nasser. The earliest memory is taking Carmen to home in Saratoga, first time . She was 12 weeks old and Tara was holding her in a basket on her lap as I drove. I still remember her poppy smell. We were discussing what to name her. Tara almost immediately said Carmen! I said sounds good but what a strange name for a dog, I did not know you as an opera fan. She said, no, that is because I know I am the person that has to take care of her and in Farsi "Kare-man" meaning my work! So that's how she was named Carmen!
• Carmen was fund of chewing shoes left in front of stairs in our Saratoga home. Tara lost many shoes this way, including a pair of Feragamo's! Carmen did have an expensive taste!
• She had the very sharp poppy teeth. At times when we walked her on the street, she enjoyed the stroll very much and hated to come back. On the way back she would be biting our feet not to take her back.
• Carmen's childhood friend was Candy, a dog about same age belonging to our neighbors in Saratoga (Francesca) They used to chase each other and play for hours and never get tired.
• Carmen discovered the actuator magnets for garden sprinklers to be chewable! She proceeded to destroy all 12 of them!
• Carmen quickly learned all the bad words from our Chihuahua, Lucky. She learned how to bark at the mailman, UPS and FedEx trucks.
Adult Carmen:
• On her first birthday, we took her to Hog's Breath Inn Restaurant in Carmel, Hangout known for the Clint Eastwood-inspired decor. Tara ordered her ribs, served on a silver plate. She loved it and appropriately had diarrhea day after. We learned that spicy food had this effect on her.
• Carmen was never neutered. Every 6 moths she'd go in heat. We'd know when we'd see her fold her bed and hump it constantly! Very embarrassing in front of our friends!
• Carmen could not take too much affection. If you sat by her and pet her for 10 minutes, she would eventually get up and leave.
• Carmen was mated a few times. Only once she got pregnant (Father was Velo, belonging to Terry Moudakas. She gave birth to only one poppy, Ruby, later renamed to Ena and given to Terry Moudakas, parent of Carmen's mate. Ruby lived with us for 10 weeks and was a bundle of fun. The birth was very difficult. Carmen was in labor for about 8 hours. We had a specialist finally intervene to pull out Ruby, w/o which both mother and child would probably have not survived.
• The morning after Ruby was born, Anoosh and Tara had to go to hospital as Anoosh's mom was admitted to ICU the day before. We asked our good friend Yassi to come and baby sit Ruby for us and she asked, how do I feed her? Tara and I both laughed and said that don't worry, mother's milk would be just fine. She graciously spent the day with the two of them.
• Carmen hated being a mother. From the first moment Ruby was born, she did not care for her. Anoosh and Tara had to sit by Carmen to get her to feed Ruby. Ruby was super smart and aggressive and would hang from Carmen's t**s and would not let go! Carmen would be in pain as Ruby had sharp teeth.
• Carmen loved to hang out in the garage.
• She learned quickly that Jish means to p*e. She rarely disappointed me when I asked her to Jish.
• She would drink like a camel. But at nights, if she was going to stay inside, she would regulate herself and drink less so she could last till morning to go p*e. I was amazed on how long she could keep herself without going to pe, easily 8 hours or more.
• Anoosh setup a We**am on Ruby and friends from around the world were watching her. Anoosh once got an email from a friend in Australia asking him to run home as Carmen was not in the picture and Ruby seemed lonely and hungry!
• One of the toughest decisions was to give away Ruby to be adopted by parents of her father. Tara's was fighting with breast cancer at the time and the prospects of also taking care of Ruby would have complicated life greatly, especially since Carmen was refusing to mother her!
• Carmen loved to chase squirrels. Roza and Tara had a hard time holding on to her on walks. Carmen would see an squirrel going up on a tree and she would take off to bark at the base of the tree and to harass the poor squirrel
• Carmen loved the walk in the wilderness area behind Gypsy Hill Rd. near the house in Saratoga. She would take off at times and go down the deep trench (creek) and get messy and come back up. Later in life it got harder for her to come back up.
• On the way back from the walks on Gypsy Hill Rd., Carmen would take off again on the continuation of the creek from the wilderness area. At time she would not show up again for another 10 minutes!
• Carmen once met a little white dog on Gypsy Hill Rd and fell in love with her. Later one day she ran away to see her love. The owners called us to come and get her
• Carmen loved to do the forbidden. Example was laying out in Roza's room when Lucky was still around.
• Carmen used to obsessively knock on the glass on the French door in the Saratoga house kitchen to get in. This would at times drive Roza crazy, especially when she was doing her high school homework. Carmen ended up destroying the lower panes of the French door which had repaired in the last remodel.
• Carmen loved the walk by the Los Gatos dam. She would get into the calm creek water and cool off her belly
• When travelling in the car, we opened the back hatch at the destination, she never jumped out until she was told to do so.
• Carmen used to jump in the back of the car on her own. As she got older, Anoosh had to help her by partially lifting her body. at 122lb, this was not easy. Anoosh purchased several ramps and steps for her, but Carmen refused to climb any of those.
• Once tara was sick in bed and Anoosh was working in his office. Carmen was guarding Tara the bedroom but had a bad case of diarrhea! She had to release herself on the silk Persian carpet in the bedroom. Of course Anoosh got to clean the mess!
• At age 10 she was diagnosed with Hemangiosarcoma (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemangiosarcoma), a blood vessels disease. Her spleen was removed and she was given 4 months to live. She did one session of chemo therapy after which Carmen got so miserable we stopped. She went on to have a few other medical issues: http://www.gopetsamerica.com/german-shepherd/nodular_dermatofibrosis.aspx and infection of uterus (uterus was removed). She went on to live another 3 years. What a trooper...
• During the Saratoga home remodel in 2013, We lived with Roza in San Francisco for a few months. Carmen had to get used to the city living. No longer an acre of land at her disposal. Worse, she was dependent on us to take her out to do her thing. It was hard for her to get used to all that concrete and asphalt but she quickly learned to p*e on a slope facing up so she won't' get wet! Also after seeing the mess she made on the sidewalk, Tara came up with the idea of Poopsi and even had a friend in Wisconsin who owned a plastics factory make a prototype for her!
• Carmen loved Tara's singing. She would greet outside Tara's voice teacher, Ghazaleh and walk her into the house. Then she would sit quietly and listen to singing lessons. When Tara sang at our home parties, Carmen often sat at her feet. Having the prime seat, she enjoyed mom's singing
• Carmen would bow to family members in the mornings. She often put her head on our feet to be pet. She was completely selfless
• Carmen's beauty touched everyone. Walking on the street or beach, people often stopped to comment on her and pet her. This would happen every few minutes.
• Carmen loved children and lowered her body to not scare little kids and allow children pet her.
• First time she saw snow was in Tahoe' Squaw Valley. I believe she was about 10 years old. Her first thing was actually laying in the snow and making an angel by moving her feet and hands. We had a great time with her snow shoeing.
• When Carmen took food from your hand, she would do everything so that her teeth don't touch your fingers. Sensation of her licking things off one's finger was wonderful.
• Carmen once did a high five to grandma Gol and she fell flat on the on the hardwood flooring. We were lucky mom Gol was not hurt.
• Tara's cousin Parvaneh was visiting from England. Parveh twisted her ankle the garden as Carmen was doing 360s around her.
• One time Carmen had picked up something off the ground and proceeded to swallow. Don't remember what that was but it seemed dangerous. Anoosh forced her mouth open with his hands, stuck his fingers in her throat and pulled out the object. Even though Carmen must have felt violated and had choking sensation, she tried her best so that her teeth don't touch Anoosh's hands
• Anoosh and Tara and Carmen were in Carmel. They tried to go hiking in Point Lobos, but found out that no dogs were allowed. Anoosh decided to instead climb the cliff's by the beach next to Point Lobos. As the climbing got more difficult and path became narrower, Carmen started to get scared. At one point she had to jump over a narrow ledge to follow Anoosh but she was hesitating. Anoosh insisted and Carmen finally jumped with success. She had to trust completely that Anoosh would hold on to her on the other side and she would not crash on the rocks below.
• Once while walkinga around Union Square in San Francisco, we decided to walk through Macy's with Carmen for fun. So Anoosh put on sungalsses and pretened he was blind and Carmen was the dog leading him around. Carmen did real well making her way through different departments until we had to go downstairs on the escalators. She was afraid of the thing and refused to get on it! We finally found the elevators and made our way out of the store. It was a great stroll and obody stopped us!
• Once Anoosh was Barbequing about 15lbs of pork chops for Carmen and he left the chops to cool off in a try above the BBQ. When he came an hour later to collect the tray, he found out Carmen had climbed up and eaten about half the pork chops! Next time Anoosh was barbequing for her, BBQ got engulfed in flames and got destroyed! We started cooking for her in turkey roaster outside which was great since we became vegan.
Carmen's routines:
• For some reason she always wanted to sleep upstairs in the Cliff house. Sometimes she would retire upstairs after dinner before Tara an Anoosh.
• Carmen insisted that we do our morning routines. She used to love to wake up Tara in the mornings for Tara to go the gym. She would then wait for Anoosh to wake up and sit outside behind the bathroom while Anoosh showered
• Her favorite treat was dried duck breast. The treats were at her reach but she only went after them 3 times, all of episodes were result of Carmen being hungry as we must have forgotten to feed her on time. When Tara or Anoosh arrived at the Saratoga house she had the routine to wait outside by the garage door for her to get a treat. At the Cliff house treats where in the pantry cabinet. Carmen often went to the cabinet and knocked on the door indicating that she wanted a treat!
• Carmen hated potatoes and beans.
• When Tara's father was healthy, he used to do gardening in the yard and Carmen would sit next to him and keep his company.
• Carmen always wanted to eat with the family and after, she would hang out the living room until bed time and then would prefer to sleep outside.
• Anoosh would tuck in Carmen every night before going to bed
• Carmen's body was always very warm. Anoosh used to stick his cold feet under her arm. She would sit calm until Anoosh's feet were warm.
• Carmen always preferred to eat with us. Once Anoosh started cooking for Carmen, Carmen developed the habit of eating the fresh food. She would finish her own and then would try to get someone to feed her food off of the dinner table. Guests were the preferred target! Once she made sure no more "fresh" food can be acquired, she would quietly finish her dry food, in such a way that we would not see her do that! After Anoosh and Tara became vegan, Carmen was very disappointed!
• Carmen loved deserts after dinner. That meant everything we ate. Examples of what she had for desert:
o Pistachios (she would peal them before eating the pistachio)
o Sunflower seeds
o Pomegranate (in season!)
o Vanilla Ice cream (she had her own jar)
o Organic peanut butter (She had her own jar)
• Carmen loved to play with sticks at the beach. The thicker the stick, the better. She would carry enormous sticks in her mouth, a funny site that made everyone laugh. She found her biggest stick at the light house beach only two days before her passing away. She swam that day and carried that stick many hundreds of feet.
• Carmen never played fetch. She would never voluntarily give you the ball or the stick to throw for her again. Anoosh used a second ball or stick to distract her at times but that rarely worked.
• Anoosh's mom used to sit in the living room each day when Ana would come to clean the house. Carmen would sit at her feet keeping her company
•If we had to leave the house we would tell her " I'll be back". She would understand and accept that promise
• Carmen only spent one night away from home and that was the night she had the spleen surgery when she stayed at vet. Tara was insisting we bring her home that night too.
We will always love you Carmen
