After spending some time bumming around on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, we moved to the other coast to Bradenton, Florida where Casey was very happy to be an only child again. It was also very good that she could swim, because we lived less than a mile away from a dog friendly beach, and you would have thought that she was a water dog her entire life from the way she tore out into the bay.
The water went from her greatest fear to her favorite place in the world. She LOVED going to the beach, because I think it was the only activity that could legitimately exhaust her. With all that time on the beach and in the water, she even started displaying a more hip style.
Now I will say that the beach didn't always love her. She wasn't the best at not drinking the water, and that led to some hilarious walks back where she would be blowing out the water from both ends. I will say it was far more entertaining when she did it on walks as opposed to on drives.
Casey was never much of a talker early on. Outside of barking when someone was at the door, she was pretty quiet with everything. We thought it would be hilarious to get her to start talking. Friends and family warned us against this, but we went ahead and did it anyway.
Was this a great decision? No, it was not. But it was a fun decision. It all started with howling, but it evolved into her letting us know about how she felt about needing to go potty, play time, or just the basic need for attention. It was nice to have more of a dialogue with our dog.
Even though she started talking more, this girl was still all about action.
I promise I didn't teach my female dog to hump me like she was a boy, but I certainly wasn't mad about it the first time it was discovered. I'll admit, she humped me...A LOT, but I thought it was hilarious and she got a real kick out of it so it was a win-win situation. Also, it was a great party trick when entertaining guests.
And she used those grappling skills to become a world champion.
As you can see, Hulk gave her a hell of a battle, but she wound up on top at the end.
She also stayed active in more conventional ways as tennis was one of her favorite spectator sports although years later it would evolve into other paddle and ball sports.
This is her in chill mode, just watching all of the action of other people playing tennis. But when she was watching us, she would literally run from side to side hoping that the ball would magically emerge through the fence so she could get in on the action. It was pretty great that we could allow her to be totally loose at the park, and she'd just stay right by the fence because she didn't want to miss a second of the action.
Now running after tennis balls for an entire match can get pretty tiring, so it was good that she knew how to stay hydrated.
That is her perched up on a drinking fountain getting her drink on. She always wanted to associate more with humans than dogs so it is no surprise that she started taking on human characteristics and drinking at our water fountains.
Since we treated her as our child, I had the utmost trust in her. Most people wouldn't intentionally have their dog lunge and bite near their face. I am not most people...
and Casey is not most dogs. One of the things about going through these old pictures and videos is it reminded me how much I had her jump for things. Since her back legs got weaker her last couple years, jumping was something that we took out of the workout equation outside of her getting to a proper resting place, but this dog in her prime had some major ups.
Although she usually stood out from the crowd, she also knew how to blend in and could have made it as a spy had she chosen that profession.
There were so many times where I would look over and just catch her snout and one eye staring over at me, completely still, just taking in my movement to make sure she didn't miss out on anything. It seemed like she was always there.
Being the only dog again and being through a couple moves with us, she got more and more comfortable. And she had a smile on her face no matter what situation you put her in, like my wife dressing her up.
She just didn't care what you did to her as long as you were there to love her. And at that point, that dog could do no wrong in my eyes.
There isn't always a perfect picture for the memories that we made, but it's funny the moments you cherish. We had a school and a park that we would go to get her energy out. One day, when driving to the park, as we were getting closer, she was crying out in excitement and practically jumping out the window. She usually got excited but still managed to stay in the car without any worries, but she was totally amped for this day. At least that's what I thought.
As I was pulling in to park, I smelled it before I saw it. It turns out she wasn't so excited to play that she wanted to jump out of the car, she just really needed to poop. Instead, she pooped all over the passenger seat in my car. Convincing a weimaraner to stay still after she just pooped in the car is an impossible task, so Casey was just stomping all over the place spreading the poop from her seat to the center console over to my seat. And I found every bit of it hysterical.
Luckily, the park had a bathroom nearby so I was able to at least do a cursory wipe with paper towels immediately. We definitely then went and had a blast throwing the ball, because there was no need to waste a good trip to the park just because there was a little poop on the interior of my car. After taking her home, I gave it a good cleaning, but the windows were definitely down as often as possible over the next few weeks.
Even though it did me wrong that time, I still loved Casey's booty.
And that's the "end" (get it?) of our time in Bradenton, Florida. Stef took a new job, and we were heading up the coast to Clearwater, the city where we would settle down, but it would take us another year before we found the house for Casey to settle down in.
The water went from her greatest fear to her favorite place in the world. She LOVED going to the beach, because I think it was the only activity that could legitimately exhaust her. With all that time on the beach and in the water, she even started displaying a more hip style.
Casey was never much of a talker early on. Outside of barking when someone was at the door, she was pretty quiet with everything. We thought it would be hilarious to get her to start talking. Friends and family warned us against this, but we went ahead and did it anyway.
Was this a great decision? No, it was not. But it was a fun decision. It all started with howling, but it evolved into her letting us know about how she felt about needing to go potty, play time, or just the basic need for attention. It was nice to have more of a dialogue with our dog.
Even though she started talking more, this girl was still all about action.
I promise I didn't teach my female dog to hump me like she was a boy, but I certainly wasn't mad about it the first time it was discovered. I'll admit, she humped me...A LOT, but I thought it was hilarious and she got a real kick out of it so it was a win-win situation. Also, it was a great party trick when entertaining guests.
And she used those grappling skills to become a world champion.
She also stayed active in more conventional ways as tennis was one of her favorite spectator sports although years later it would evolve into other paddle and ball sports.
This is her in chill mode, just watching all of the action of other people playing tennis. But when she was watching us, she would literally run from side to side hoping that the ball would magically emerge through the fence so she could get in on the action. It was pretty great that we could allow her to be totally loose at the park, and she'd just stay right by the fence because she didn't want to miss a second of the action.
Now running after tennis balls for an entire match can get pretty tiring, so it was good that she knew how to stay hydrated.
That is her perched up on a drinking fountain getting her drink on. She always wanted to associate more with humans than dogs so it is no surprise that she started taking on human characteristics and drinking at our water fountains.
Since we treated her as our child, I had the utmost trust in her. Most people wouldn't intentionally have their dog lunge and bite near their face. I am not most people...
and Casey is not most dogs. One of the things about going through these old pictures and videos is it reminded me how much I had her jump for things. Since her back legs got weaker her last couple years, jumping was something that we took out of the workout equation outside of her getting to a proper resting place, but this dog in her prime had some major ups.
Although she usually stood out from the crowd, she also knew how to blend in and could have made it as a spy had she chosen that profession.
There were so many times where I would look over and just catch her snout and one eye staring over at me, completely still, just taking in my movement to make sure she didn't miss out on anything. It seemed like she was always there.
Being the only dog again and being through a couple moves with us, she got more and more comfortable. And she had a smile on her face no matter what situation you put her in, like my wife dressing her up.
She just didn't care what you did to her as long as you were there to love her. And at that point, that dog could do no wrong in my eyes.
As I was pulling in to park, I smelled it before I saw it. It turns out she wasn't so excited to play that she wanted to jump out of the car, she just really needed to poop. Instead, she pooped all over the passenger seat in my car. Convincing a weimaraner to stay still after she just pooped in the car is an impossible task, so Casey was just stomping all over the place spreading the poop from her seat to the center console over to my seat. And I found every bit of it hysterical.
Luckily, the park had a bathroom nearby so I was able to at least do a cursory wipe with paper towels immediately. We definitely then went and had a blast throwing the ball, because there was no need to waste a good trip to the park just because there was a little poop on the interior of my car. After taking her home, I gave it a good cleaning, but the windows were definitely down as often as possible over the next few weeks.
Even though it did me wrong that time, I still loved Casey's booty.
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