Casey the Pirate

He is a sweetheart.  His mushrooms come today.

Thought I’d share a few pictures of our pack.  First, we have Jake’s 15th birthday party last week.  That’s Jet, Jake, Casey, and Bode, with Ann in the sneakers.

Jet’s surgeon called this morning.  His tumor was hemangiosarcoma and his margins were not clean.  Six and 1/2 years old.  I will never again neuter a dog before puberty.

I just received the pathology report and will be doing some research, but I’m all ears to any of you who have knowledge or experience surrounding this disease.

Crap!

Casey’s big brother Jake went to the rainbow bridge this afternoon and collected his wings. Sadie will be waiting, and she’ll introduce him to Dexter, our first-born.

Jake was our first big dog, our first black dog, our frisbee dog, and our only Michigan dog. He was the quintessential good ol’ boy, and I really miss him.

There are lots of Jake stories, but one of my favorites is at Swan Lake (remember Casey and the Swan?  Same lake).  Swan lake is generally not much more than a mud puddle, and over the years, all of our dogs have enjoyed going for a swim there, but on one of our first trips, Jake stepped out into the lake and four feet from shore, climbed onto a rock.  Well, apparently, the lake was suddenly infested with piranha or sharks, because there was no way Jake was getting off that rock.  He just stood there and called for help until the rest of the dogs and I left.  We were over a quarter mile away, out of sight over a hill, and Jake kept calling.  Finally, we turned around and I had to wade out into muck up to my calves to carry him ashore.  I’m just glad I was able to avoid the piranhas.

Jake loved winter, and hanging out in the snow.

We’ve had a lot of rain here in near-northern Virginia, and it’s really impacted our walks.  It stopped raining this evening, so . . . I think I’ve mentioned before that walk time is a bit of a circus around here, and not having walked for a few days, tonight we had all three rings going at once.  I know I mentioned the blanket, but Casey’s other great love is paper.  He’s mutilated thousands of dollars in checks that I had to have replaced, and chowed down $135 in cash one afternoon.  Another time, I had about $6,000 in checks that I’d just prepared the deposit for when the phone rang.  I stepped away and at the last minute, grabbed the checks.  When I got back, the deposit book was mutilated.  He’s been know to pull the napkin off your lap during dinner.  That’s just Casey being Casey.

Well tonight, while I was hooking up his brothers, Casey grabbed a magazine cover or something and he was just so so proud.  He was prancing/hopping/pirouetting around like Snoopy doing his spring dance, absolutely loving life.  My heart is still smiling.