The puppy behind the girl

In honor of National Dog day Monday, this well over due blog post is going to be dedicated the pup I rescued. to the sweetest, cutest little 4-legged blonde girl to ever walk this planet, Casey Michelle.

Let's back this story up to circa 2010. There was a stray dog that lived in my parents neighborhood. This dog was dropping a litter of puppies off in our yard about once every summer. I was going home to visit one weekend, and on the way my mother mentions that we had a new litter AGAIN. I had kind of became frustrated with having to find homes or take them to the pound, so I didn't really think much of the idea, nor did I go to see them when I arrived home. Later that night, I went outside to look for something and remembered, "Oh, we have puppies!" so I went to investigate. Of course, who can turn down playing with a huge pile of puppies?! No one, right? I picked one of the puppies and took her inside with me. I played with her for a few hours until I fell asleep, and she did too. 

Okay, so maybe this was posed

The next morning, I went to return her to her litter, but first I let them all (all 7 females) out of their pen so they could play in the grass. Sure enough, the one that I had initially chosen in the dark because she was the first one I could get my hands on was the one that I could tell was going to make the best dog out of the bunch. {Yes, I have a talent of being able to pick the best dogs out of a pack. Ask anyone I know.} While I was playing with them, I remembered Billy was also in the hunt of a Brittany Puppy, but he was having zero luck finding one that wasn't going to have issues and/or cost a ton. So he instantly got a huge stockpile of pictures of these puppies sent to him. He said he'd take one, and that I got to pick which one he'd call his. Obviously, I chose this sweet, well tempered, little girl. 

We went through an intense naming process that looked a lot like a football bracket. I was set on naming her Bristol or Avery. He wanted to name her something stupid, obviously. We settled on Casey. 

Billy met her for the 1st time the week of July 4th, 2010. She was 6 weeks old. She instantly stole our hearts. She could barely fit in her itsy-bitsy collar and couldn't finish and entire walk without laying down and stopping making one of us carry her back. She spent the entire summer getting well adjusted to cabin life, the perfect riding companion , and the life of a bleacher/orphan pup at her dad's baseball games. 

After summer was over, we began the process of moving back to Milledgeville. Unfortunately, we found out the the puppy friendly house Billy was moving into was entirely covered in black mold and was uninhabitable. Considering this was just a few days before school started, we were scrambling to find a place for him to live. We were unable to find anywhere he could live without having to pay a $800 pet deposit, which he didn't have. We were forced to give her up to two very sweet friends of Billy's who too were looking to adopt a pup, and said that if anything changed that they would understand. That night, I cried thinking about having to let her go. Billy did too. We had fallen in love with that sweet girl, and she had really taken a part of us. 

The next day we were determined to find a place, come hell or high water, that would let us get our precious girl back. We finally gave up, and had two more places left before we were out of options. Sure enough, we found two girls looking for a roommate in a dog friendly apartment complex! They already had a dog, so the pet deposit had be covered. It was incredible how lucky we were to have finally found it. The first thing we did, was call and hope that they would let us have our girl back. We were ecstatic when we picked her up to take to her new home to be with us permanently.
Side note: the sweet friends that took her were able to adopt another lab puppy two weeks later from a shelter. They love him to pieces, and I am still so thankful knowing they would have loved Casey just as much.

This was when we picked her up.  She even looks excited to see us! 

Casey is now 3! She is the epitome of a good dog. So well mannered, obedient, loving, I trust her, playful, and quite the cuddle bug. As soon as she knows she's going somewhere, she goes and waits by the door to "get dressed" and then darts towards the back door of the car to wait for someone to let her in, because she knows she's in for an adventure. I love knowing that as soon as we get to the field, I can unleash her and she goes right to her spot. Everyone knows her and loves her and loves seeing her show up to the games. I love watching her play with babies and other puppies because she is so gentle. Whenever a great play happens, she gets excited from the fans excitement and will even chime in a little cheer when you say "Go Dawgs, Sic' em!" ;) That's my girl. I love her.

My Bleacher Dog

At the KR tailgate party

I know I say I rescued her, but honestly, she rescued me. I sometimes wonder how much boring or what joy my life would be missing without her. If you own a dog yourself, you know exactly what kind of pleasure and happiness these little fur-balls can bring. If you don't, I completely encourage you to adpot from your local shelter or humane society. Don't give in to the stigma that pound puppies are ugly and have issues (well honestly, some do, but not all). They are just as sweet, beautiful, smart {smarter than most full blooded} dogs that need love too!