Remember
Charlie
Saline's Famed Canine Dies of Cancer at Age 9
ASSOCIATED PRESS, August 19, 1999
SALINE -- One of Saline's most famous faces didn't look like a typical
celebrity -- but his job at a local gas station earned him national fame. This week, the
Golden Retriever named Charlie died of cancer at age 9.
Charlie was a standby at Harry's Service, cheerfully trotting up to
cars at the gas station and grabbing motorists' money in his mouth to take back to the
cashier. His gentle nature won the trust of patrons.
"I got people coming in this morning with tears in their
eyes," Rick Parsons, Charlie's owner and the station's manager, told the Ann
Arbor News. "He was pretty special."
Parsons learned the dog had lymphoma a month ago and tried
chemotherapy. It worked temporarily, but Charlie took a turn for the worse Monday morning.
Parsons tried to drive him to a veterinarian in Ann Arbor.
"Going through town in Saline he stuck his head up, but by the
time we got to Ann Arbor-Saline Road he was dead," Parsons said.
Charlie would have turned 10 in October.
"He sure stole our hearts," said Emily Miller, a regular
visitor from Ann Arbor. "Whenever I'd go into the store, there'd always be people
there fussing over Charlie."
Charlie's local fame spread in 1996 when he was the subject of several
news stories. CNN, "Inside Edition" and dozens of newspapers and TV and radio
stations featured Charlie. He also earned a spot as grand marshal of the Saline Celtic
Festival parade in 1996 and rode on a miniature gas station float in the city's Christmas
parade.
Marathon Gas shot a video of Charlie at work for its corporate office
and built him a dog house. And the cable channel Animal Planet filmed Charlie for a show
about working dogs to air this fall.
Parsons bought Charlie in 1989 when he was a puppy. Charlie learned his
trade by imitating Parsons' other dog, Shawn, who would plop her paws on the counter in
the station. He soon expanded his efforts to retrieving bills -- with lots of petting and
treats as incentive to keep up his work.
Cindy Plumley said she almost ran out of gas many times because she
wanted to make it to Harry's to see Charlie. Plumley adopted one of Charlie's puppies 18
months ago. "I never knew I loved dogs so much until I met Charlie," she said.
Charlie's legacy will live on in the three dozen puppies he fathered.
Parsons kept one -- Benjamin -- who also hangs around the station. Parsons says Benjamin
is still too young to take over the family business.
Book Further
Immortalizes Saline Canine
By Paul Tull, Publisher Emeritus, The Saline Reporter, December 2, 1999
Charlie the
Dog was a remarkable Salinian. When he passed away last summer, the friendly Golden
Retriever had already become a world-class celebrity. His face smiles from the pages of
countless newspapers, magazines, and on TV screens. He got bales of fan letters in the
mail or in person, from almost everywhere. People traveled miles out of their way to gas
up at his and Harry's and Rick's service station.
And now, as we
approach the millennial holidays, Charlie seems about to achieve immortality as an author.
As an author? Yes! Of a best seller? Possibly!
His very own book, titled Gas Station Charlie, has just come off the
press. Since Charlie spent most of his career years at Harry's pumps, serving drivers and
autos, his book could appropriately be called an - autobiography.
And the very first words of his autobiography seem to come right out of
Charlie's mouth. Telling about his choice of careers, he says: "It was before my
fourth birthday. I felt sad because I had nothing to do. . . I decided I had do something
to make myself useful."
THAT SOUNDS pretty autobiographical, doesn't it? But
by a dog? Well, not exactly. So let's let Charlie's ghost-writer explain all of this, in
the dog's own words. Says Charlie:
"As I said on the first page my book, I wanted to make myself
useful. So I became a gas pump jockey at Harry's and Rick's gas station. In mid-career, I
had gained a lot of friends on the job. Some of them would scratch me. Some would hug or
kiss me. And some would take my picture. All this fuss was part of the job routine, I
guess. But early-on, I noticed one friendly lady wasn't routine. Again and again, she kept
coming back with her camera. She would pump gas, and pay me, and then she would take my
picture. She took lots of pictures. Other people did that, but this lady was different.
She came back time after time, and every time, she would take more pictures of me.
I asked my partners, Harry and Rick, 'Who's this woman with the
camera?' "They said, 'She's Doris, Don Kraushaar's wife. She must like to take dog
pics.' "I could understand that. Dog pictures are prettier than people pictures.
"So from then on, when she'd ask me to pose a certain way, with a
certain expression on my face, and would ask me to do it over and over, I would try really
hard to cooperate. Dome people are wacky about dogs, and it's not nice to cross them.
"Then one day Doris brought another lady with her. She called her
Karen. They both had cameras. They both took pictures of me. When they'd finished
shooting, and were about to leave, I heard Karen say, "Let's do a book.' And, that's
how my autobiography, Gas Station Charlie, began.
"Will the book make me immortal, like Shakespeare, Lassie,
Hemingway, Rin-tin-tin, Peanuts or Dostoyevsky? Doris and Karen hope so, and so do all of
my four-legged friends. Because the proceeds from the sale of my book will help support
the programs of the Huron Valley Humane Society."
*
* * * * * *
* *
AS YOU,
the reader may already suspect, Charlie didn't exactly write his autobiography. He just
inspired it. Karen Grassmuck Kraushaar, Doris's daughter-in-law -- an award-winning
author, became Charlie's ghost-writer. Doris, whose earlier book -- Vibrant Ann Arbor --
has become increasingly popular, did most of the shooting. She also worked closely with
Ron Fraker, graphic artist, and with White Pine Printers of Ann Arbor, to transform
pictures and manuscript into a a very attractive book.
Doris, a singer and Saline Schools music teacher for 20 years, has
developed her former photo hobby into an artistic profession, especially since her
"retirement". The University of Michigan, and an M.A. from EMU. Now she haunts
the darkrooms at Washtenaw Community College, sharpening her photo skills, and keeps in
shape vocally as choir member at First United Methodist Church in Ann Arbor. Plus JazzElegance, a trio doing music of the '40's with piano and saxophone/clarinet.
IN A RECENT
Q? & A! interview, Doris shared
ideas with Reporter readers:
Q: How do you compare your two careers, as music teacher and
photographer?
A: They're apples and oranges. Very different, but both very
fulfilling and fun.
Q: Which of your books is your favorite?
A: Always the one I'm working on. That's especially true of
Charlie's book. Karen has caught Charlie's wonderful personality with the words she has
put in his mouth. She is an outstanding writer, formerly a reporter with The Ann Arbor
News, with many career credits and honors since she earned a B.A. at Brown University and
an M.A. in journalism from The U-M. Just as Charlie said, the decision to do his book came
after Karen and I paid him one brief visit together at Harry's Service last year.
Q: Did you both have a special relationship with Charlie?
A: No. He just loved everyone he met.
Q: Do you have a special relationship with Benjamin,
Charlie's replacement?
A: It's developing. He's coming along, trying hard.
Q: What's next?
A: I'll think of something.
Q: How do you find time for work in the kitchen?
A: Kitchen? What's that?
Q: Anything else?
A: I want to thank Harry and Rick Parsons for the
encouragement and cooperation; Marathon Oil Co.; Bob Webber at White Pine; cartoonist
Daniel Fenech; everyone else who've helped in so many ways; and especially Karen for the
idea and the inspiration and her wonderful writing, all of which brought this book to
life. Charlie agrees with that.