05 Nov 2024 Pet of the Month: Moose plus Mustache and Dot!

By KD Reep

Carlie Crabtree did not intend to have a 140-pound lap dog and two cats as a graduate student at the University of Central Arkansas, but life had other plans.

Crabtree, who is a native of Pocahontas (Randolph County) and working on a master’s degree in film at UCA, is an avid animal lover. In spring 2020, all three of her childhood pets died, leaving her with none to bring back with her to college. “It kind of hit hard,” Crabtree said. “I started looking for another dog, and I found Moose on a Facebook listing. I wanted to get a big dog, so I looked up Pyrenees, and I found him.”

The puppy was a mix of Great Pyrenees and Newfoundland, one of a litter being raised by a family in Phoenix. “I messaged them and told them my situation,” Crabtree said. “They told me Moose and one other puppy were the last of the litter to not have homes yet. They were taking one of the puppies to Missouri to his new family, so I met them in Fayetteville to get Moose. He’s been with me ever since. He turned 4 in May.”

While Moose is as tall as the average doorknob and 140 pounds, Crabtree said he is the least menacing animal around. In fact, he is bullied by his brothers, tuxedo cats Mustache and Dot, so named for their striking facial features. “One has a kind of, like, goatee going on, and the other has a dot on his mouth,” she explained. 

“They actually started out as feral kittens on my grandma’s farm. We found them in 2018, so they are older than Moose by two years, and they’re the ones in charge. Moose was about half the size of them whenever we got him, and now he’s much larger.”

The cats got their bluff in on Moose early as he is nervous around them and, to hear Crabtree tell it, a little afraid of the dark. “He does not sleep with me. He sleeps in the living room with a little night light on,” she said. “And then the cats kind of bully him, so they make him a little bit too nervous to just pass out completely.”

As a full-time college student renting a home with other students, Crabtree explained her pets have free reign of the house during the day while she and her roommates are away.

“They can roam as they please, and we have a backyard where they can go, too,” she said. “Mustache and Dot are outdoor cats, and Moose can go out there and play and investigate. I don’t think I was ever planning to take on all three while at school, but then my parents moved houses, and I ended up taking care of all of them. They are all pretty calm, and Moose isn’t a high-energy dog. The cats are pretty lazy as well, but they’ve taken well to their new home and being couch potatoes.”

The student grew up with pets, her first being a golden Labrador retriever named Sandy. “She was around before I was,” Crabtree said with a laugh. “I always grew up with a pet. We didn’t have pets inside the house then, and it took a lot to convince my parents to let Moose be an inside dog.”

She said Moose is pretty social, given his more nervous nature, and he’s a great conversation starter. “I think that’s one of the big perks of having a dog, at least in college,” Crabtree said. “You have a new way to meet people. I like taking him to events, to the dog park, just walking around campus. That’s how I socialized him, and people will always stop and say, ‘Can I pet your dog?’ but mostly, he likes to hang out at home.”