A dog that died in 1981 is still causing trouble!

My father's aunt whom we called Chochi ("Auntie" in Polish) had an obese white Labrador called Fritzie. Fritzie was Chochi's constant companion-- wherever she went, he followed her. He was such a creature of habit that he wore a trail in the grass around our house because he walked the exact same path every day. This aggravated my father, who took pride in his lawn, so he tried putting obstacles up to stop Fritzie from his trailblazing... but Fritzie would just walk around the obstacles and continue on his path. Eventually my father quit trying to fight the Immovable Force of Fritzie.

One day some of the plants in Chochi's garden were broken, and she asked my sister and I if we had done it. When we said we hadn't, she said, "Well, I guess Fritzie did it!" This was sarcastic because Fritzie never did anything out of his regular rountine. But the phrase started being used around our house whenever anything got broken and nobody wanted to take the blame. Pretty soon, Fritzie was taking the rap for doing everything from leaving lights on to overloading the washing machine-- he was a very talented dog!

Fritzie died in 1981 from cancer, but that didn't stop him from continuing to cause trouble at our house. We kept blaming him for everything until my sister and I moved out of our parents' house. I realized that the phrase "Fritzie did it!" had become a part of family history when I heard my sister use it just last month. I was at her house and she was looking for something and couldn't find it, and her husband denied moving it. "Fritzie did it!" she said, making me laugh. I guess that damned dog is STILL at it!