Dubbed the ‘Lassie of the 90’s’, Jack Russell Moose rose to stardom for his role as ‘Eddie Crane’ of hit sitcom ‘Fraiser’.
Moose was born on Christmas Eve 1990 in Lake Country, Florida. He was the last pup born in the litter, but strangely, the biggest. Owners Sam and Connie Thise sold the other three puppies but kept Moose.
However, problems soon emerged. Moose was, to put in mildly, wild. He used to climb trees – straight up for about 6 feet, constantly escaped, barked a lot, couldn’t be housetrained, dug holes everywhere, and chewed everything. He also enjoyed rolling around in cow manure, especially after being bathed. He was found chasing horses and cats.
Knowing they were not up to the challenge of caring for the rambunctious Moose, his owners set about finding a new home. This start was rather like Lassie who was given up by his original owners because he was too much to handle.
Struggling to find a family willing to take him on, he was eventually offered to the Florida manager of Birds and Animals Unlimited, a group of animal trainers, Cathy Morrison, as a last resort.
For a year and a half, Cathy strived to train the incorrigible Moose. It wasn’t an easy task. She would come home to find him up on the table eating something, or ripping something to pieces in another corner of the house. He was mischief start to finish. But some of the best show business dogs had that kind of spunk and that convinced Cathy to battle on.
When Cathy was about to start marketing Moose as a movie dog, a casting call was put out calling for a small dog to become part of the cast of a new TV show called ‘Fraiser’. He quickly won the role and at just two and a half years old Moose was put on a plane and entered the care of LA trainer Mathilde DeCagny.
In order to get Moose to lick and nuzzle on cue, sardine oil was put on actor’s faces and liver pate put behind their ears.
Moose received more fan mail than Fraiser’s human cast members at the height of the show’s popularity.
With Fraiser’s hit status, concerns began to grow over Moose’s age as the years passed. There were only so many years of his life a dog has the stamina to withstand the demands of a rigorous appearance schedule.
A litter of puppies were bred with Moose as the father, with the hope one could become a stand in for their aging sire. His daughter Miko was thought to be a good option, but never grew large enough, and so was gifted to a technician. A son, Moosie, wasn’t enough of a look-a-like and found a home with Peri Gilpin, the actress who played Roz Doyle. Both dogs however appeared in the show as a litter of puppies ‘Eddie’ was supposed to a have fathered with a neighbour’s poodle.
Another son Enzo had unusually similar facial markings to his father and so was cultivated as his TV heir. He originally worked as a stunt double, performing more physically challenging tricks as Moose aged. In the eighth season he took over the role in its entirety.
After retirement, Moose spent the last six years of his like in West Los Angeles in the home of Mathilde, her husband and Jill, a fellow canine actor who starred in As Good As It Gets. He died of natural causes at the age of 15 and a half and was mourned around the world.