In August of 2016, we fully settled in Florida as we bought a house in Clearwater. Casey was very happy to not have to move again.
Picking a house is difficult, and down here, just picking a general area is difficult. Luckily, Casey helped us make that decision by having us buy a house that was within walking distance to the park that we liked to ball out at.
Ball is life. A house is just details.
But one of those details was very nice. Casey had her own pool that she could enjoy.
...where I went more unconventional. It didn't matter as Casey was so relaxed with us that she was happy to go along for the ride as long as she was getting attention and pool time.
As she approached double digits in age, swimming was sometimes a little too much and she just wanted to cool down on a hot summer day.
Although she loved the water, she preferred to travel by land.
Because she loved car rides and I loved her, I wanted to take her everywhere with me. If I was heading to the store, heading to the library, or a variety of other spots, I always wanted her to tag along, and she always wanted to tag along. I would park much further away just to find a shaded spot and made sure she was comfortable, even if I was only gone for five minutes. And every time I went inside, she would steal my seat and just refuse to move.
A lot of times when we went out together, we went to breweries, so maybe she thought I was drunk? Either way, I gave her scratchies and crowded her space until she would move over which probably gave me enough time to sober up in her mind before we drove home.
If I didn't take her, this is what would happen.
When I went for runs, she would just wait by the door and keep peeking her head out the window, waiting for my return. When Stef was out of town, I would make my runs shorter, because I felt guilty about her just waiting for me by the door. So, yes, when my wife was actually around, I spent less time at home, but when she was away, I knew I needed to hustle back for quality time with Casey.
But who wouldn't want to take this dog everywhere?
While I was cruising down the road, did she pop my car into neutral on more than one occasion? Yes, she did, including one time on the interstate, but we're all still here, so no harm done.
For Christmas of 2016, we were going to head up to Ohio to visit Stef's family. Although we easily could have gotten a direct flight up there, that would have meant leaving Casey behind. That meant a 20-hour car trip over two days. We decided to stop off in Savannah, Georgia to spend the day together and enjoy the sights and sounds, and for Casey, the tastes of the city.
We found a dog friendly hotel in downtown Savannah, and bravo to the Kimpton Brice Hotel. Usually, a dog friendly hotel means that they will charge you extra money to allow your pet to stay with you. Here, they gave her snacks when we first checked in and had a giant dog bone treat waiting for us in the room. By the evening, the staff all knew Casey by name, and she made me stop by the main desk as often as possible so she could get some extra treats. She could not have been happier about our hotel choice, and somehow things got better from there.
We went for a late breakfast after we arrived, and after we had ordered, the waiter asked if our dog could have some bacon. She got two beautiful strips of bacon, and I had to admit, I was a little jealous, but she was just as happy as could be.
We cruised around the city for most of the day, and although the cooler weather was a little rough on us, it was ideal weather for Casey so she was pulling us every which way to take it all in.
Then we went to a brewery in the late afternoon, and the waitress came out and just started feeding her candied pecans. Then she told us to hold on for a second and came back with a ham slider for Casey to have. Casey was living the dream.
That evening, we gave her a rest since she had been running around all day and went out to dinner. After dinner, we had planned to go to another brewery, but being away for an hour made us miss Casey, so we ended up just going back to the hotel to hang with her.
The next morning we woke up early to make the rest of our drive to Ohio. As we walked to the car, the food caught up with Casey as she unleashed liquid gold on the curb (she missed the grass). The only thing that was cleaning up that mess was a hose, so we hightailed it out of there with Casey smiling the entire time. It was a perfect trip.
Speaking of perfection, I found some perfect $1 toys for her at the Dollar Store.
From furthest to closest, that's Lemonhead, Sammy-Rai, Dildo Baggins, Chester Cheeto, and Disco Ninja. Stef and I loved these toys almost as much as Casey did. She was surprisingly good at not destroying toys so these toys all stuck around for a while.
If she didn't have her regular toy, she was pretty good about improvising.
This was supposed to be a casual walk on a nice trail, but Casey found a perfectly reasonably-sized stick for me to throw/hurl, and she just had to bring it to me. It was funny, because she either went for the largest possible thing she could carry or the smallest thing she could carry. She'd find wood chips at the park and bring them over to me like that was a viable toy for me to throw and for her to find. She was not that good of a hunter, but I will admit she was pretty good at hunting out potential toys, which is how she found out about pickleball.
When she caught a game of pickleball, I would literally have to drag her away. One time, I had to pick her up and take her away, because she planted her ass on the ground, and the only way she would have rather been in pain than left that game. She would have watched and waited for hours, hoping for a wiffle ball to come her way.
She never could grasp that not everything was a toy.
She stood, stared, and cried, hoping that I would be nice and throw that fish for her, but it was one of those few times where she didn't get what she wanted.
During those times where she was not getting what she wanted, she was not shy to let me know about it.
If I was casually watching a television show, she was totally fine with it, but if I was intensely watching something, that just didn't work for her. This most often manifested during Iowa football and wrestling (I'm a little more chill for basketball). Above is stage one where she would get in between me and the television so it would be nearly impossible to ignore her. During stage two, she would start crying, and in the final stage she would start clawing at me to pay attention to her. The more I wanted to watch the game, the more aggressive her tactics became. I tried to soldier on, but she always won in the end.
She was also incredibly skilled at looking pathetic.
There is no way this was comfortable, but she would just lay/stand/rest there because she knew that she would have our undivided attention if she was doing something that weird/pathetic.
Something that wasn't weird, pathetic, or embarrassing at all were her dance moves.
I taught her a lot of what she knew, but she would sometimes just let the sound of nature guide her and improvise her own moves.
She balled out, knew how to chillax at the pool, people would give her stuff for free for being cute, she could always find a way to have fun, and her dance moves were on point. In summary, she was the personification of cool.
Picking a house is difficult, and down here, just picking a general area is difficult. Luckily, Casey helped us make that decision by having us buy a house that was within walking distance to the park that we liked to ball out at.
Ball is life. A house is just details.
But one of those details was very nice. Casey had her own pool that she could enjoy.
She had come a long ways since her early swimming fiascoes. Now she had a smooth stride when in the water.
She was still our playtime buddy, although Stef went more conventional with Casey in the pool...
As she approached double digits in age, swimming was sometimes a little too much and she just wanted to cool down on a hot summer day.
Because she loved car rides and I loved her, I wanted to take her everywhere with me. If I was heading to the store, heading to the library, or a variety of other spots, I always wanted her to tag along, and she always wanted to tag along. I would park much further away just to find a shaded spot and made sure she was comfortable, even if I was only gone for five minutes. And every time I went inside, she would steal my seat and just refuse to move.
If I didn't take her, this is what would happen.
But who wouldn't want to take this dog everywhere?
For Christmas of 2016, we were going to head up to Ohio to visit Stef's family. Although we easily could have gotten a direct flight up there, that would have meant leaving Casey behind. That meant a 20-hour car trip over two days. We decided to stop off in Savannah, Georgia to spend the day together and enjoy the sights and sounds, and for Casey, the tastes of the city.
We went for a late breakfast after we arrived, and after we had ordered, the waiter asked if our dog could have some bacon. She got two beautiful strips of bacon, and I had to admit, I was a little jealous, but she was just as happy as could be.
We cruised around the city for most of the day, and although the cooler weather was a little rough on us, it was ideal weather for Casey so she was pulling us every which way to take it all in.
Then we went to a brewery in the late afternoon, and the waitress came out and just started feeding her candied pecans. Then she told us to hold on for a second and came back with a ham slider for Casey to have. Casey was living the dream.
That evening, we gave her a rest since she had been running around all day and went out to dinner. After dinner, we had planned to go to another brewery, but being away for an hour made us miss Casey, so we ended up just going back to the hotel to hang with her.
The next morning we woke up early to make the rest of our drive to Ohio. As we walked to the car, the food caught up with Casey as she unleashed liquid gold on the curb (she missed the grass). The only thing that was cleaning up that mess was a hose, so we hightailed it out of there with Casey smiling the entire time. It was a perfect trip.
Speaking of perfection, I found some perfect $1 toys for her at the Dollar Store.
If she didn't have her regular toy, she was pretty good about improvising.
This was supposed to be a casual walk on a nice trail, but Casey found a perfectly reasonably-sized stick for me to throw/hurl, and she just had to bring it to me. It was funny, because she either went for the largest possible thing she could carry or the smallest thing she could carry. She'd find wood chips at the park and bring them over to me like that was a viable toy for me to throw and for her to find. She was not that good of a hunter, but I will admit she was pretty good at hunting out potential toys, which is how she found out about pickleball.
She never could grasp that not everything was a toy.
She stood, stared, and cried, hoping that I would be nice and throw that fish for her, but it was one of those few times where she didn't get what she wanted.
During those times where she was not getting what she wanted, she was not shy to let me know about it.
She was also incredibly skilled at looking pathetic.
Something that wasn't weird, pathetic, or embarrassing at all were her dance moves.
I taught her a lot of what she knew, but she would sometimes just let the sound of nature guide her and improvise her own moves.
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