Soo Iâve got about 3 or 4 posts that Iâve been meaning to get out to you guys, my steemit fam. Everything ranging from photoshop tutorials, to a really cool app review and a new audio @texttosteem post.
But today Iâm not feeling the best. Physically, mentally & emotionally Iâm in a bit of a downswing today so I decided to write about what makes me happiest at this exact moment.
And so today Iâd like to share the story of my very first dog, Casey.
When I was little, all my little Dayle heart wanted in the whole world was a dog. I was raised Christian and every night before I went to bed Iâd hold my stuffed animal dog named âVivveyâ (because he liked frisbees, and because kid logic) and pray for a dog.
I will never ever forget the day our family went to our local shelter to meet a brand new litter of puppies that had been rescued that week. They were the candy litter, so all the names were after different candies snickers, kit kat etcâŠ
Mom had taught us how to behave around animals so my 8 year old self and 4 year old little brother sat quietly in the corner of a play room while they brought the puppies in.
OBVIOUSLY I was LIVING.
In a room surrounded by 8 or so puppies. Dayle was in utter bliss.
Mom taught us how to sit back and watch their behaviors, how they played together, how to read their body language with each other and with humans, who was the alpha in the group and which were more submissive.
While we sat back and watched, one puppy noticed they had visitors, left the group and came right over to 8 year old Dayle sitting cross-legged and laid down in her lap.
Soon he was asleep in my arms.
Our family always said he chose us because thatâs exactly how it went down, he was just kinda like âbuy guys!â and decided we were his new family.
It absolutely killed me to have to leave little PEZ there that day (that was his candy name). But my parents explained that all puppys were still very malnourished and sick and the vet hadnât cleared them to leave yet.
You see, someone had taken their whole litter, tied them up in a plastic garbage bag and threw them to the curb in the trash. Iâm not sure how long it had been before someone found them and brought them to the shelter but they were heavily malnourished and all had worms.
Looking back, thatâs an awful reality to explain to an 8 and 4 year old, but Iâm glad my parents took the time to be real with me, and not shelter (no pun intended) me from the realities of how some people treat other living beings.
The whole experience had a profound effect on my life even if I didnât know it at the time, and my 9 year old empathy engine, already on over drive, swore sheâd do anything she could to help creatures in need.
About a week later actually on Halloween night, my parents picked us up from school, which was odd, because we usually took the bus. We got in the car and they said âKids, weâre going to get the puppyâ.
I lost my absolute freaking mind.
A few hours later after all the papers were signed and fees were paid (a whopping $50.00) we were driving home with a scared shaking, stinky little shelter puppy wrapped in a towel in the back seat of the car in my little arms.
This photo was taken that night.
Me being the happiest kid on planet earth, brother, over my extra-ness and waiting for a turn to hold the pup, and puppy, not accustomed to flash photography and all the new smells of a new home.
In the following years, Casey went everywhere with us, to baseball games, to our camper van in Pennsylvania, on hilkes⊠everywhere we went he went with us.
I remember distinctly even when he was still a puppy weâd go on hikes in the woods all together and Casey would try to herd my brother and me back to my parents if we ran too far ahead. One time he absolutely shot out in front of all of us like a bat out of hell to alert us to a pretty sizable snake on the trail ahead. Iâm surprised he didnât try to bring it to us.
Thanks to my mom, Casey was impeccably well trained. We even taught him to bring us our shoes in the morning when we were getting ready to catch the bus. - I really canât say enough about him. He was the perfect family dog for a very imperfect family.
But beyond being family companion it wasnât long before my Mom having realised his incredible temperament, putting up with Joey and myself, would make a great therapy and service dog and very very soon after that my Mom started her official dog training business which sheâs owned and operated for more than 25 years now!
I had no idea until looking through these old photos that he passed certification so young, you can see here one of these ID tags is dated 1997 so he must have been just over 2 years old. Which in dog years is kinda still adolescence and ADD brain time. Kinda cool ;)
On weekends and even some evenings after school, weâd go with mom to nursing homes, childrenâs hospitals and other care facilities so that the patients could have some much needed Canine therapy time. Iâm so glad we were allowed to go, it instilled a sense of service in us at a young age, and a thankfulness for our health, I soon understood so many had it so much worse off than I did, and being there to assist in my own little kid way helped me feel empowered to have a positive effect on others.
I was little but I saw some crazy stuff, kids undergoing chemo, men and women with mental challenges and disabilities, all the way up to elderly folks who diagnosed with Alzheimerâs were able to recall the songs theyâd sing to their dogs, on the spot with no hesitation.
Casey was a perfect gentlemen through all of it, you could tell when he was in work mode, he was stoic, calm and there for anyone who needed him. Heâd let kids pet him and jump on him for hours.
Why am I sharing all of this? Well I started off this post just as a cathartic post down memory lane, until I found thisâŠ
A letter written by the woman who actually rescued the candy litter that day. It was at the bottom of a shoe box of Casey photos and enclosed was this photo, neither of which I had ever seen before.
It says:
Dear Casey & Family,
Hi- I saw your photo hanging on our âgiving treeâ & I had to drop you a line and send you my photo.
I took this picture the say I brought the pups in (the day I found them abandoned in a box in Paterson). They were in rough shape! It warmed my heart to see this pup from such dubious beginnings looking like the King of the castle in his new home.
Thank you for adopting through a shelter (I only wish more people would!) and Happy Holidays!
If you have the chance to bring a new dog into your life please please please consider adopting from a local shelter or rescue. Why in the world wouldnât you save a life if you had the opportunity to! Please don't believe the breedist prejudices and stigmas around shelter dogs. Casey was a PitBull mix who was thrown out in the trash, in the hood. Haha if any dog was going to "turn out bad" or was going to be "damaged goods" it would have been him.
PetFinder.com is an awesome resource (in the states) which matches people with the appropriate breed, size and age animals for their families and lifestyles.
Itâs been years since Casey passed but I can tell you this $50 shelter dog brought more joy, happiness, damn, a freaking business, and love into our lives and the lives of the folks he met through therapy work than we could have ever ever anticipated.
I just wanted a dog.
Well pup, you live on in the blockchain now. Iâm sure weâll meet again one day.
Love you,
Dayle
lol my poor brother....
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