Chapter 6 - She Owned Me

In 2015, we moved up to Clearwater for my wife's new job, and Casey finally realized that unlike her family that moved to Alaska, we were never going to leave this dog behind. Still, she wasn't going to take any chances, so she showed her willingness to do anything to stick around.

When those suitcases came out, she did anything to go along for the ride. But I promise we didn't shut the trunk on her with a suitcase, air pump, and half container of antifreeze. We made sure that that goofball was well-loved.

As long as she had her human contact, she was good to go.

Casey loved her car rides, even though I often got in trouble for the freedom I gave her in the car. Stef was very cautious, and for good reason. Stef gave Casey car freedom early on with Casey's head out the window, enjoying that fresh Iowa air. And then as Stef was cruising down a fairly busy street (for Iowa), Casey just upped and jumped out of the moving vehicle. It happened so fast that Stef barely knows what happened, but somehow, Casey just got a little scraped up and was really no worse for the wear.

Hence, she was always hesitant to give Casey much freedom, but I attributed her jump out of the car to youthful exuberance and did my best to let her fully enjoy life.

Note: This is a residential street with no other cars around. And if the police are reading this, we did everything on a closed course with professional stunt drivers and cameramen. 

More importantly, Casey was also my favorite road tripping pal of all time.

Since she needed to be in on the action, Casey sat shotgun on road trips while my wife was stuck in the backseat. This way she could get attention from me when she wanted some chest scratchies, or she could jump to the back to snuggle with her Mom. The only issue I had with her as a road tripping companion is sometimes she would stare at me while I was driving, and she would simply be too cute. My wife had an issue of sometimes Casey would want to snuggle her face against mine, partially blinding me from the road, but I just thought that was incredibly cute, and I'm still alive, so no harm done.

We drove a few miles to get to a park that fit both of our needs. Casey learned a new sport as we balled out together.

She had trained for football, obsessed over tennis, and now she was ready to challenge Air Bud in the world of basketball. Her offense was nonexistent, but that defense was top notch.

Not only did Casey know that we weren't going anywhere, but the reverse was true as well, so I started to give her a little more freedom on her walks.

I know it looks like she is madly, deeply in love with me, and that's probably true, but the real reason she is staring up at me is because I was holding her orange ball which was basically better than a leash in controlling her every move. 

Casey was a dog that constantly evolved. She got better and better at using her paws to hold things in place. 

Okay, so she still wasn't perfect. But it also shows that she loved her most beat up toys. If she tore a tail off a stuffed animal, she would not want to play with the entire body and head, she would think the tail was the only thing that mattered. Whatever was the smallest, nastiest part of a toy, that turned out to be her favorite. I'm looking at the remnants of a toy in the video above and couldn't even tell you what it started out as. A fish, maybe? But it made her happy, so we went with it until the concern of choking hazard became too much and we had to throw it out.

Speaking of toys, if you picked out a toy from a place, she would assume that place had an endless amount of toys. If it was from a plastic bag from the store, we could just throw out the toy portal that was located in a plastic bag, but if you gave her a toy from a nightstand, this happened.

She would just stare and cry for you to open the drawer and get her more toys from the toy portal. You could open that drawer and show her that no toys were in there, but that was only a short-term fix as in her heart of hearts, she knew that eventually that toy drawer would pay off again. We ended up putting another toy in there just to see the joy on her stupid little face.

She was shockingly good with children. When we lived up in Iowa, she would slip her ball through the corner of the fence so the neighbor kids could throw it back over for her. When people with kids came in town, she always made an effort to become best buds with the little ones.

Really, Casey did well with people of all ages.

With me, she would pull hard and buck and swing and do most everything. But with people weaker, she did know how to dial it back in order to maximize the attention she was receiving. Here she just stuffs her toy in Stef's Grandma's lap and then waits patiently, well maybe not patiently.

Her constant need to be involved in everything extended to the community pool.

I took Casey out for a walk while Stef was lounging by the pool, and once Casey heard Stef's voice, she was bound and determined to see her Mom. She may have very well been able to wedge herself through, but I had to put the kibosh on that idea. Casey never wanted to miss out on anything, and she would go to great lengths to make that happen.

The next story is told in three pictures. The first is Casey chasing Stef on a bike. Stef could just ride up and down the street, and Casey would just cruise right on behind her, following wherever she may go.

Obviously, we thought this was super cute, so Stef wanted me to get a picture of those two posing together that would be an adorable moment that was captured forever. Casey was a little too excited to actually look at the camera, so instead we captured this moment.

I laugh every time I see this picture. Stef is giving the sternest point ever, and for some crazy reason, Casey The Dog does not understand that hard point means look at the camera and smile. She looks like the most terrified pup, like Stef's her pageant Mom forcing her to put on a performance that she doesn't want to do. I love it. Luckily, Stef got her picture, kind of.

Apparently the stern point did not work, but you take what you can get.

On top of being a sweet dog, she was also very brave. Here is Casey during a thunderstorm, and as you can see, she's showing tremendous courage in order for her parents to stay calm.

Okay, so maybe bravery wasn't her thing, but it all paid off when she got comfortable.

Even though she could be a bit of a spaz, she was a relaxing presence in our lives.

Here she is, helping me with an early morning yoga session. I was always the early riser, so Casey would follow me around in the mornings and stay close, because she couldn't miss out. Although we didn't always do the same stretching routine, it was good to get our stretch and breathing on before facing the day.

My relationship with Casey could best be described as weirdly obsessive. I was obsessed with her, and she was obsessed with me, so our obsession led to us doing a lot of weird shit. Here's a photo of two pals just being totally normal.

I know I wasn't her Mommy, but sometimes I liked to play the role and feed her baby bird style.

We did this EVERY SINGLE STEAK NIGHT. There was never a time where I wouldn't put a fatty piece of meat in my mouth and have her gently take it from my lips. She wasn't the greatest steak hunter, but she got the job done.

I know it seems like Casey was the perfect dog, but she did occasionally get in trouble. It was almost always for getting in the bathroom trash and causing a mess. I would start yelling at her, and then she would give this look.

How could I be mad at the saddest dog ever? Clearly she was sorry, and that sad little face with those floppy ears drooping down as low as they could go, how could I get mad? So the discipline got less and less harsh until this is what she looked like when she knew she did something bad.

She's got the ears going, kind of, but she was also super excited to see me since I just got home so she had a massive smile on her face while also knowing that she messed up. There were definitely times where I pleaded, "Will you at least stop smiling and look sad about what you did?" But she just really wanted scratchies from her Pop Pop, and I really wanted to give her those scratchies. My dog owned me.

Speaking of her owning me, we'll end this year with one of my favorite pictures.

Here's us, after an intense session of playing ball at the field down from our house. She's laying in the shade, surrounded by the drool and splashes of water that she just had from her bowl. I told her, "Let's go home," and she literally laughed right in my face. I'm glad she did. If she would have done what I asked, I would have been happy once, but seeing this happy face will forever bring a smile to mine.

Chapter 7: The New House