At the end of 2013, we gave Casey a non-sinner family with me marrying Casey's Mom (non-biological). After getting married, it was time to give the dog the best life possible and move her from Iowa to Florida. I drove a 26 foot truck with no company while Stef drove her car and had the best company.
I'll just imagine that my wife temporary allowed a photographer in the car for a bit instead of her taking this photo while going down the interstate. But Casey was an awesome road trip buddy, and I'm very jealous that she got all that time with Casey while I was stuck with whatever podcast I was listening to back then.
We initially moved in with Stef's sister to start our time in Florida to give us time to figure out what we wanted to do and where we wanted to live to do it. So we lived as guests in beautiful Plantation, Florida which is less racist than it sounds, but it's Florida so still somewhat racist. There was a pool at the house, and even though we didn't know Casey her first two years, we can confidently say that this dog had never been in water.
She did everything she could to still play while keeping her body out of that water which she assumed was a death trap. Along with living with Lola again, there was a new dog to worry about in Jack. Jack is the most harmless dog ever, but Casey avoided him as much as possible, because Jack realized he was a dog and wanted to play with other dogs, and that seemed way too uncivilized for Casey to consider. She was there for the people. And this strategy of Casey staying out of the water was a good idea on her part, because this dog was the least natural swimmer of any dog that has ever existed.
As you hear at the end, "Oh my God, she's a terrible swimmer." Natalie, Stef's sister was not wrong in her assessment. I was not a trained swimming coach for dogs, but I believed in myself, and I believed in her, so we slowly worked on building her confidence.
Look at that improvement. The smashing her arms into the water as hard as she could was gone as she had a little smoothness in that motion. But she was still a work in progress as she still wouldn't get in on her own and didn't totally understand the concept of stairs in the pool.
Luckily, she was enough of an athlete from her time playing defensive end and ass over teakettle in the basement of our Bettendorf, Iowa house that she could make up for her lack of spatial awareness. And finally, after some work, she had a breakthrough where she was not only willing to get in the pool, she freaking LOVED it.
She was a dive bombing machine and would go as long as you would throw. Plus, she even learned how to use the stairs. I have no idea how these videos got spliced together, but hey, there's some fancy editing work for you so you get two jumps in just 12 seconds. She started ordering up more play time, even if I wasn't outside.
Let me give you a side view to hammer home how ridiculous this dog was.
There she is, perched on the loveseat, ready to get served a heaping helping of playtime. I always saw this dog as my sweet dummy, but it was times like these where she showed more intelligence than she originally let on. If she wanted to play, she was going to find a way to play.
Learning to swim helped her gain confidence in all areas as she was no longer going to be a submissive beta to her cousin.
She was no longer going to get pushed aside in the bed with her parents. It was her bed, and she was going to protect it from all comers. When Lola and Casey were in Iowa, Lola completely dominated, but Casey's newfound confidence made her realize that she was bigger and stronger than Lola, and even though Lola had the brains, Casey was willing to use her brawn to get what she wanted. The smackdowns did occasionally get intense as Casey once put a gash in Lola's side, and Lola put a slit in one of Casey's ears. They were definitely rivals, but even rivals can get along at times.
This does not mean that Casey became a great lover of dogs. Even though we frequently took Casey to a dog park down the road, she was there for the ball and human contact and avoided the other dogs as best she could.
She was better friends with the drinking fountain than any dogs. She was also kind of a prick about the water as she would be very territorial around the drinking fountain so no dog could have any while she was there. Even if she was taking a break, she would stand over the fountain and protect it from any thirsty hounds. Since you have to put a positive spin on anything your dog does, I'll just say the K9 Guzzler was her friend, and she was protecting him. What a sweetheart.
She both made and lost a good friend during our time in Plantation.
Lil' Stevie was something I got for free when I switched to Geico Insurance and immediately became one of her favorite toys. As you can see, Lil' Stevie tragically drowned in the swimming pool. But it turns out stuffed lizards can go through drowning and come back just as strong as Casey got it out of the pool and it eventually dried out to be just as strong as ever. He did end up passing away due to excessive stuffing loss, but Casey was quite fond of that lizard.
But she still loved people more than anything and even though she always wanted to play, sometimes a good snuggle would suffice.
Even though she didn't want to share her snuggle buddies with any other pup dogs, she did at least learn to coexist with other dogs.
But with Stef taking a new job, we were off to Bradenton to see what adventures would lie ahead.
We initially moved in with Stef's sister to start our time in Florida to give us time to figure out what we wanted to do and where we wanted to live to do it. So we lived as guests in beautiful Plantation, Florida which is less racist than it sounds, but it's Florida so still somewhat racist. There was a pool at the house, and even though we didn't know Casey her first two years, we can confidently say that this dog had never been in water.
She did everything she could to still play while keeping her body out of that water which she assumed was a death trap. Along with living with Lola again, there was a new dog to worry about in Jack. Jack is the most harmless dog ever, but Casey avoided him as much as possible, because Jack realized he was a dog and wanted to play with other dogs, and that seemed way too uncivilized for Casey to consider. She was there for the people. And this strategy of Casey staying out of the water was a good idea on her part, because this dog was the least natural swimmer of any dog that has ever existed.
As you hear at the end, "Oh my God, she's a terrible swimmer." Natalie, Stef's sister was not wrong in her assessment. I was not a trained swimming coach for dogs, but I believed in myself, and I believed in her, so we slowly worked on building her confidence.
Look at that improvement. The smashing her arms into the water as hard as she could was gone as she had a little smoothness in that motion. But she was still a work in progress as she still wouldn't get in on her own and didn't totally understand the concept of stairs in the pool.
Luckily, she was enough of an athlete from her time playing defensive end and ass over teakettle in the basement of our Bettendorf, Iowa house that she could make up for her lack of spatial awareness. And finally, after some work, she had a breakthrough where she was not only willing to get in the pool, she freaking LOVED it.
She was a dive bombing machine and would go as long as you would throw. Plus, she even learned how to use the stairs. I have no idea how these videos got spliced together, but hey, there's some fancy editing work for you so you get two jumps in just 12 seconds. She started ordering up more play time, even if I wasn't outside.
Let me give you a side view to hammer home how ridiculous this dog was.
Learning to swim helped her gain confidence in all areas as she was no longer going to be a submissive beta to her cousin.
She was no longer going to get pushed aside in the bed with her parents. It was her bed, and she was going to protect it from all comers. When Lola and Casey were in Iowa, Lola completely dominated, but Casey's newfound confidence made her realize that she was bigger and stronger than Lola, and even though Lola had the brains, Casey was willing to use her brawn to get what she wanted. The smackdowns did occasionally get intense as Casey once put a gash in Lola's side, and Lola put a slit in one of Casey's ears. They were definitely rivals, but even rivals can get along at times.
She both made and lost a good friend during our time in Plantation.
Even though she didn't want to share her snuggle buddies with any other pup dogs, she did at least learn to coexist with other dogs.
But with Stef taking a new job, we were off to Bradenton to see what adventures would lie ahead.
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