In Memory

Casey, 11/20/1997-11/28/2011

It's always a bummer to share sad news, but clearly I would be amiss if I didn't say a few words about our family dog.

Casey's name was Casey because #1tomatolover hated the fact that we got a girl dog. He thought that girl dogs, like the girls he knew, would stay inside reading rather than go outside and play. And I don't really blame him, surrounded by women as he was, for wanting a boy dog. So we had to switch from Cassie, which I suggested for her name, to a more gender-neutral version.

Casey did a lot of running to the park with me and then moseying around the park by herself while I shot around on the basketball court. From early on in her life, she knew that my father or me putting our sneakers on meant a W-A-L-K. And she would get so excited that she would run back and forth in a frenzy that usually slowed down the shoe-tying process. As she got older, she couldn't go for the long walks anymore, then she stopped going on walks altogether the last couple of times I was home.

I always said that she was a terrible guard dog--she used to hide nervously behind us anytime there was someone new at the door. By and large, she really didn't like men--she slunk away from them, but would allow women to pet her. She really didn't like children or big groups, and she especially didn't like thunderstorms--when they happened, she would find something made out of wood that was near her to chew on. If she was outside during a thunderstorm, she would run away from the house, occasionally ending up miles down the road. What she did like a lot was Mama Leopard and Papa Leopard, and Mama Leopard loved her: she always did say that Casey was her favorite child.