Nickie and Carla must think they’ve died and gone to heaven, where dogs live like people and nobody kicks them around.
The two mixed-breed canines not only have their own house in a well-to-do section in the Memphis State University area, they have their own nun to watch over them.
“For dogs, it’s a pretty good life,” admitted Sister Mary Michael Greaber, 66, a Dominican, who stops by the dogs’ people house twice a day to feed, water and walk them around the neighborhood.
She took on the job about seven years ago following the death of her aunt, Helen Walsh, who asked in her will that the dogs continue to live in the house for the rest of their lives. After that, Greaber may sell and give the money to charity.
The two female dogs are strays, what Greaber calls “throw-away dogs,” without papers or fancy bloodlines.
“They were my aunt’s closest companions,” she said, “but nobody would want them now. Carla is 10, and Nickie is 11. If it hadn’t been for my aunt, they’d be back on the street. Where would they go? Carla was living under a halfway house when she was found. She weighed 10 pounds. She was so hungry, she ate a sandwich with the wrapper on. Now, she weighs 80 pounds.”
The good life is what put on the weight. Besides being fed two big squares a day, the dog has become something of a couch potato.
The dogs have their own color television, and both are fans, regardless of the show. They also have their own places staked out in the den: Carla on the couch, Nickie in the easy chair.
They’re housebroken, and Greaber says they never slip.
Actually, the dogs don’t have the run of the whole house. A tenant lives in the front part, and the dogs share a rear addition that includes a kitchen, a large den and a bedroom with a double bed. They also have a fenced back yard.
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Greaber’s aunt, who had lived with the dogs for years, saw them for the last time shortly before she died.
“For an old woman living alone, these dogs were like people,” Greaber said. “They slept inside, and they were my aunt’s only companions. She wanted them to go on living in the house until they didn’t need it anymore.”