Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, December 16, 1993 TAG: 9312180014
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LINDA SHRIEVES ORLANDO SENTINEL
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
This fall, he made his television debut as Eddie, the bad-boy dog who stares at Frasier Crane, the psychiatrist on NBC's "Frasier." Then came a segment on "Entertainment Tonight." Now his snout is gracing the cover of Entertainment Weekly.
Not bad for a dog who used to roll in cow poop in Lake County, Fla.
Eddie, whose real name is Moose, has a rawhide-to-riches story that would make Louis B. Mayer proud.
The Jack Russell terrier was born on Christmas Eve 1989 near Weirsdale - on a night so cold that the power company instituted rolling blackouts.
He was the last puppy born in the litter but oddly was the biggest. His owners, Sam and Connie Thise, sold three of the puppies, but the family kept Moose.
The Thise kids loved him. But he was a terrier terror.
"He's wild. He can climb trees, straight up for about 6 feet," said Connie Thise, a veterinary technician. "And he loved to roll around in cow crap - especially after we bathed him."
The Thises couldn't handle Moose, so they gave him to the man who shoes their horses. He kept Moose for a few months, then returned him.
Connie Thise searched for someone who could handle the sprightly pup. One day last year, while Moose was with her at the vet's office, she offered him to Cathy Morrison, manager of Birds & Animals Unlimited, a group of animal trainers who operate the Animal Actors Showcase at Universal Studios Florida.
"He was really, really adorable," said Morrison. "I said I'm definitely interested, but talk it over with your husband. She said, `Here's his leash.' I guess he was wreaking havoc."
Adorable, yes. Well-behaved, no.
"I knew he would be a great film dog because he's so animated," she said. "But he always gets into trouble. He'll pee on things, dig up things, he can jump straight up in the air."
For a year and a half, Morrison trained Moose. He lived at her house and at Universal, although he never performed there. When Morrison went to Toronto to work on a film for three months, she and Moose shared a hotel room.
"He was hard to train because he was incorrigible," she said. "You'd come home and you'd find him up on the table. He would have eaten something on the table. Or he was ripping into something. All the time, some kind of mischief."
But that spunk - and eagerness to climb trees, jump out of moving cars and get up on the roof of a house - convinced her he would make a great show-business dog.
Just as Morrison was about to start marketing Moose as a movie dog, the producers of "Frasier" put out a casting call for a small dog.
Moose quickly landed the role of Eddie, the pet of Frasier Crane's father. It's a job that consists primarily of glaring at series star Kelsey Grammer.
Now Morrison's star pupil is getting the star treatment. Entertainment Weekly calls Moose "the hottest pooch to be unleashed on the airwaves in years." He dines on hot dogs, stew beef and chicken. He gets recognized in public. The NBC mailroom receives hundreds of letters for His Dogginess every week - with everything from breeding requests to job offers.
Moose's former family is following his career. Every month, Connie Thise chats with his Hollywood trainer, Mathilde De Cagny, learning of Moose's latest adventures and sharing stories. "We're getting a big kick out of it all," she said.
Thise doesn't regret giving him away. "He was a handful. And I understand he still is."
But Moose can still go home again. After "Frasier" has run its course, trainer Morrison wants him back in Orlando.
"When the show is over, he comes here," she said.
by CNB