The (Mis) Adventures of Casey Dobos

THE (MIS) ADVENTURES OF CASEY

"Saving one dog will not change the world, but surely for that one dog, the world will change forever.  So did my life and the lives of my entire family.  Casey was part of and still is, a part of our family.  We are adjusting, but surely not forgetting.  We trip over ourselves trying to ignore the fact that she is gone. It is still just too sad to talk about.  We start things like "Oh remember when we were in the pool last summer and we had to keep Casey off the deck....." or "Gee, it's funny not to have Casey eating anything dropped, or not tripping over her as she was always under foot."  We reminisce without saying too much at all.  We are all thinking the same thoughts.  We are all wondering if we get another dog, what will it be like.  We wonder if it is too soon.  We wonder if it is disrespectful......then think wait......to a dog???  She was so human-like.  She knew what was going on.  When she could still see, she would pout when she saw suitcases.  She would nuzzle up when we were sad or lonely.  She missed the kids when they would leave.  She was so excited when they came home.  She was quite a beagle!  She patrolled the yard.  Against what we weren't sure....the UPS truck?   the mailman?  the meter reader?  Anyone and anything.  Squirrels, birds, helicopters flying overhead.  The picnic table was her perch.  She would get a running start and spend most of her time while in the yard on watch.  She had a 360 degree panoramic view.  And that bark/howl.  It could be annoying but endearing.  6AM?   Didn't matter.  She had created holes in the wood fence that enclosed 2 sides of our yard so she could observe any other dogs that might be on a walk and of course, bark!  She loved all seasons and loved to lose herself and "hunt" in the far corners of the yard and under the pool deck.  Once I came home to see her carrying what was left of a squirrel.  In panic, I thought she had been hurt and speed dialed our vet, wondering what should I do.  They assured me that she probably was not hurt, just clean her up and bury the squirrel.  Then my vet mused "must have been a slow squirrel."  Another time, I was planting flowers in the spring and came upon a bunny that had been "Caseyed" and buried and saved for later.

We hadn't planned to have another dog.  When we were first married, I talked my husband into getting a German Shepherd mix puppy. We had plenty of issues with her.  She was large, hard to walk, chewed everything, preferred to live outdoors, had 2 liters of puppies, (only one planned), barked at everything, had skin issues that warranted a trip to MSU for observation, was displaced when the kids came along and lived to be14.  I vowed not to take in another dog.  It wasn't fair I said.  We are gone too much I said.  Matt begged for a dog, "No" his dad said.  But one day, there she was.  Matt and Amanda "rescued" Casey from a family that didn't want their one and a half-year old beagle.  They were going to take her to an animal shelter.  Matt was friends with the girl who owned her and had become enamored with Casey.  "Please" the kids begged when Casey came for a visit.  "We have to make a decision quickly" Matt complained or they are going to get rid of her.  All it took was one look and I was hooked.  We bought a second hand cage from a friend of Amanda's and we were dog owners. My three kids were joyous to finally have a dog.  Matt was a senior in high school,  Amanda was in middle school and Andrew had already entered Michigan Tech, so the dog fell to Matt & Amanda to take care of. 

We decided she should live in the basement as Matt slept there and he wanted her with him.  She did not like the cage at night (she stayed in it during the day at first) and Matt wanted her to stay downstairs so he hooked some weights to a chain to her collar.  Well, not meaning to, this created a major neck injury that nearly did her in.  On Memorial Day weekend, we spent time in the Doggie ER and of course, they wanted to send her to a neurologist, which we did not do, but several more trips to the vet resulted in a morphine patch that she had to wear most of the summer for the injury.  She recovered but not before being carried out to the vet on the morning of Andrew's graduation party, whimpering in pain.  I thought I would never see her again.  She recovered and the shaved area, where the morphine patch was placed, was a constant reminder of her pain until it finally grew hair over the winter.  

That was just the beginning.  After she healed, she became the rambunctious puppy we knew her to be.  She managed to bite me and Amanda, though not seriously, those bites hurt and drew blood.  Her shots were up to date so we weren’t worried about that, but why would she do that?  The answer from our vet was that she was trying to establish who the “alpha dog” in this pack was.  We evidentially posed a threat when we messed with her food, which on both occasions, we had.  Eventually, she learned that we were not a threat to her but still she would growl if she got mixed up.

This dog could eat!  Because she was only 27 lbs., I thought they needed to have food at all times and kept her bowl full.  Well, instead of eating until she was full, she would gobble a bowl-full so quickly that often, up it would come as quickly as she had finished it.  We had to spread out a limited amount on a flat sheet so she was forced not to inhale her “kibbles”. 

Besides trips to the vet for her shots, being “fixed” and check-ups, our trips began to include things like the time she became sick and couldn’t keep anything down.  The vet gave her a shot to make her stop being sick, which seem to work but a couple days later, she was still eating grass.  I saw her in the yard on a frosty morning carrying something in her mouth.  When I went out to investigate what I thought was probably a mouse, she dropped what turned out to be a wad of elastic and fabric the size of my fist, that apparently, she had eaten out of a pile of underwear, which was clean and folded, on a card table in the basement.  We assume she used the laundry basket full of folded towels to reach the folded underwear.  When we found a pile on the floor with various parts missing from the underwear, we wrongly assumed that she had just chewed this stuff up.    Unbeknownst to us, she literally ate these pieces and of course,  did not digest, creating  a blockage, which caused her to be constantly sick, unable to digest food.  An entire week had gone by before the incident in the yard.  I later told the vet who marveled that she was still alive and had she known this, Casey would have had to undergone a very expensive surgery to remove the undigested wad of underwear elastic.  We all tried very hard to be more careful after that. 

She ate everything she could get her teeth into.  Backs of shoes, armpits of t-shirts, pool toys, and anything that came down the laundry chute that had been worn like socks or underwear.  We quickly learned another method for dispatching laundry to the basement.  Still she managed to occasionally make a snack out of dirty clothes that were forgotten and rolled in a towel, or accidentally put in a pile somewhere.    It would be a race to the basement with her!  She also could open the unlatched pantry with her nose and devour anything left within her reach that she could eat.  Dog cookies (once at almost a whole box), rice-a-roni, Hamburger Helper, macaroni & cheese, you get the idea.  None of this stuff was cooked, she ate it right out of the box.  My favorite is the time there was a full sheet of brownies that were frosted and very rich, in the basement refrigerator.  Someone took the pan out and put it on the washer & dryer to get something else in or out of the fridge.  The pan sat forgotten except by Casey.  She somehow managed to pull the entire pan down and when I found her, she was straddled over the pan eating as fast as she could.  I could only guess she ate about a quarter of the sheet. 

Her first Thanksgiving with us proved to be a challenge.  She was always underfoot.  Someone probably banished her to the basement and everyone felt sorry for her so they kept slipping her turkey, bits of gravy and mashed potatoes, and other bits of Thanksgiving bounty.   The next day, the entire family drove to the Christmas tree farm and thought it would be fun to take Casey in the car and have her in our annual Christmas photo.  Amanda was in the 3^rd seat of the Mountaineer with Casey when suddenly there was a terrible odor that permeated the entire car.  Of course, the guys all blamed each other!  The entire trip consisted of Amanda’s “oh no” and immediately 4 electric Mountaineer windows all went down as quickly as humanly possible.  Next day, back to the vet for some serious scolding about the damage  that can be done to a canine consuming human food, and some “treatments” for Casey’s upset stomach. 

Somehow, we managed to get a routine with Casey and learned what not to leave around, not to feed her etc.  Life again, became normal.  Amanda and her father even built her a dog house that she adored.  She spent hours in there napping or if we had a rain when she was outside, she knew where to go.  To make her more comfortable, we gave her an old blanket which was, I suppose, a bit of a mistake.  When things got out of control, like someone in a neighbors yard she didn’t know, or an animal nearby, she would drag the blanket around the yard and shake it like a rattle.  Eventually she started chewing holes in the blanket.  One day I came home to find her completely garmented in the blanket, dragging it around the yard, with her head sticking out of one of the holes.  She had gotten stuck in it and could not get out.  It was then I realized that she could have been seriously hurt and that was the end of the blanket without us being home or in the yard. 

Casey loved going for walks.  I only had to go after her leash and she was at the door ready.  I loved to dress her up in colorful bandanas and sometimes a sweater or shirt.  On this particular day, Andrew, Amanda and I adorned her in a red, white & blue bandana and headed up the street to the Memorial Day parade our town was having.  She behaved perfectly until the float with the Vietnam Veterans got close.  They, to the delight of the crowd, were shooting blanks that were very loud.  Casey, not a fan of loud, slipped her harness and leash and was off down the sidewalk lickety-split.  Andrew had the leash and dropped it like a hot potato, was off and running but could not catch up.  Several officers were standing by the corner of the street a block away and saw Casey running but could do nothing.  She crossed the street (we were so lucky there were no cars around), veered into a yard that was to our good fortune, fenced in.  Only then did we catch up with one very nervous, scared-to-death young beagle.  I never knew my son could run like that (or Casey).

Being a beagle is hard work.  They have a keen sense of smell.  Even in her last years when her hearing and eyesight were gone, she could still smell something good a mile away.  One weekend, our family went to Traverse City to celebrate our Anniversary and just hang out with our oldest son and some of his friends.  Our younger son Matt had to work and stayed home with Casey.  His girlfriend was over at our house and they were watching a movie.  Casey asked to go out and evidentially met with a skunk.  As they let her back in, the telltale odor preceded her but it was too late.  Matt called us to tell us what had happened.  Not that we could do anything at that point but advise him on what to do.  They tried all sorts of bathing remedies and nothing worked. Even after our return, I tried several tried and true mixtures to get rid of the smell.  On the white stripe of her “beagle face” was a yellow stripe from that skunk, that for many weeks we were not able to scrub off.   His girlfriend had to get rid of her purse because she had no way to get rid of the odor of Pepe’ Le Pew.

One summer, about 4 years ago, my husband and kids decided we needed a new brick patio. Amanda was graduating from high school and as with the two boys, we were celebrating with a large outdoor summer party.   All the supplies were in the yard and the patio took awhile to put together.  To this day, the vet does not know if it was the slag sand that we caught Casey eating  or she really had what is called “Leptosporosis” for which she had been vaccinated against but our vet explained that there are more varieties of this disease than what the vaccine covers.  (Leptosporosis is a disease that dogs can acquire by getting into any wild animal urine or feces, such as raccoon, skunk, etc. that have this condition.)  It can cause a dog to become very ill, not able to keep food down and eventually kidney failure.  Well guess what?  Yup she did.  After several vet trips, they were able to diagnose the kidney failure.  We had to decide what to do.  I was facing an empty nest in the fall and I was not ready to give up my dog too.  I was told this was bad and the vet wasn’t sure of the prognosis but she would try. 

For a week, she was boarded at the vets with an IV for hydration and anti-biotics.  She barely ate and was losing weight.  I would go and visit her twice a day.  Some times I could take her out for a bit of a walk but the IV stayed in her leg.  I was getting ready for Amanda’s graduation party that was scheduled for that Saturday.  Every few days they would take blood from Casey and check her levels and they seemed to be improving.  Come Saturday, I had to pick her up and take her to a 24 hour Emergency Vet care hospital to spend the weekend as our vet closed for the weekend.  Well, I brought her home for a few hours in between.  She was so glad to see her home and family, it broke my heart to take her to her weekend get-away!  

We continued to visit her over the weekend and on Monday I had to return her to the vets.  Within a couple of days, she was ready to come home.  Once home, I could only give her chicken or beef that was fully cooked, rinsed and drained, pureed in the blender as often as she would eat it.  Eventually she graduated to a special dog food that again had to be pureed in the blender and put into a large syringe that I could force down her.  What a messy job.  Good thing I was home for the summer as I did this 3 times a day.  I also had to take her back to the vet every other day for infusion of fluid.  After a couple of days, they showed me how to do this.  I had an IV bag of fluid that I had to, using a large sterile needle, place under her skin and keep a measure of how many cc’s were given.  I have never poked anyone or anything in my life so even after a trial run in the office, I was so scared that I called a nurse friend of mine who came over and did it with me the first time.  Eventually, every other day became every three days and after about a month, we were able to stop.  She was eating on her own and gaining ounces here and there.  Activity was slow and limited at first but eventually by summer’s end, we were back to a fully recovered healthy (and somewhat grayer) beagle.  During this summer, we even took her to Chicago to visit Matt in his apartment and manage all her medicinal paraphernalia.  I was not about to give up on her.  I still have a hard time believing that we went through what we went through.  We are not even going to discuss the bills from all of this.  Let’s just say that I could have bought a new piano, had a bathroom remodeled AND taken a very nice vacation but hey, it bought us four more years with Ms. Muttskey!   

That was the worst of the mid-adventures of our “Free” beagle.  I am sure that there are some incidents that I have forgotten but I will never forget my Casey.  I don’t get through a single day without thinking about her and wondering.  Did we do the right thing?   Did we wait too long?  Should we have done more?  Was there something we didn’t think of?  Was it……..????

My birthday is coming soon and there is only one thing I want but my logical mind knows I cannot have her back.  Every night when I am out walking, I miss her.  Every day, in the house or in my yard, I miss her.  I think if dogs are capable of thinking these things, she would want us to get another dog.  Not to replace her but to help ease the continual void.  I have put everything connected to “dog” away.  I put her bed in a garbage bag and got rid of it.  I could not stand to see anything connected to her continue to be visible. 

I was shopping at Michaels and came across a garden stone project that you can make for your dog.  I was thinking of ordering one but bought this instead for Amanda and I to create when she came home to visit.   I could not bring Casey home to be buried in the yard like Marley was.  I could not do the “ashes” thing like some of my dog-lover friends have. I could not even be with her on that fateful day.  I had to go to school.  My husband took her but I said my goodbyes the night before.  I knew it was time.  I only said “see ya” when I left the house.

 I have a thousand pictures of her, her bandanas and tags.  I have posted some poems that were sent to me by my dog loving friends,  on my blog “It Is What It Is”.  I would love to have her garden stone read how this writing opens “Saving one dog will not change the world, but surely for that one dog, the world will change forever”, however, I don’t want the stone to take up half of the yard so, a small garden stone that will read “Casey, the best dog ever” will soon be created.  I wish I could put her paw print in the middle of the stone.  Maybe a photo?  How about a micro-chip with this story?