HunterDavis.com

This is the story of Casey Davis, a medium sized pointer-mix whom we loved, and were loved by dearly, for eleven and a half years. Though she had an inauspicious start, she lived an incredibly long and accomplished life for a dog.

Casey Davis was born sometime around January 2004. We don’t have exact details, as she was rescued from a puppy mill. We know she had a litter of puppies, which may explain why she was so sweet to puppies and children throughout her life.

Around January 2005 she was rescued by a humane rescue in a small town outside of Bloomington, Indiana. She spent a year there, healing and waiting to be adopted.

In January 2006 the humane rescue ran out of funding, which meant they had to find adoptive homes or put to sleep all of their remaining dogs. Casey was slated to be put to sleep that fateful day in January 2006.

Miles away in Bloomington, Hunter and Adrienne lived in a very, very small house. It was a tiny house before tiny houses were a thing. It wasn’t so much conducive to living as it was to the budget, an important consideration during graduate studies. They had owned their two cats Nami and Dante for a couple of years, but Hunter still felt strongly there was something missing. He had been wanting a dog since before graduate school, and had agreed to wait until they could move to a larger apartment before they got a dog.

That didn’t happen.

Sara (a mutual friend and dog owner) knew about the closing humane rescue, and urged Hunter to come on their last day. Hunter agreed, but told himself he’d look for the smallest (cat-sized) dog possible. When they arrived, he realized it was a large breed dog rescue!

Hunter paced the aisle of dogs, when a 45lb pointer hound looked at him like she knew him, and whined loudly when he walked past. It struck Hunter in a place deep inside and he knew he couldn’t leave her. That was the first moment Hunter loved Casey, and wanted to protect her. He wouldn’t let them lock her up or leave his sight until she was in Adrienne’s Dodge Neon that Hunter had borrowed.

On the way home to her new home, Casey paced nervously. She didn’t know what to expect or who these people were. It was early morning, and Hunter decided to stop at McDonald’s for a breakfast sandwich. He bought Casey a sausage and egg Mcmuffin, which she ate seemingly in one bite. She had clearly never had one before, perhaps had never had any prepared food before. She loved Hunter from that day forward till her last.

Adrienne was skeptical when Hunter arrived, but it didn’t take her long to realized she had a new family member who loved her unconditionally, and she loved in return.

She also made a pretty great pillow and cuddle buddy.

Here’s the first picture we have of Casey, on her first day home, January 29th, 2006.

Every single day, she loved her family. Especially when they shared food! She wasn’t a big fan of pierogies, but she loved bacon, breadsticks, toast crusts, potato chips, and cheese. And sandwiches.

Casey was a social butterfly, and a lap dog, from the very beginning. She loved attending parties! Here’s a photo from her first party, April 1st 2006.

For the first half of her life she had a crate full of toys where she slept. She hated to sleep away from her family though. The first few nights, we tried to keep her in the crate in the kitchen. She whined so much, we brought her into the bedroom. She slept in the same room as us from then on.

She sure hated flash photography though! Casey always seemed to know when we were going to take pictures of her–she never really got used to selfies!

Her hatred of flash photography coupled with the low resolution sensors of pre-smartphone cameras meant that Casey has taken a great many out of focus, natural light shots.

Casey lived in 8 houses. She was always the first through the door. And she only ‘escaped’ from two.

She lived in Bloomington twice! When we moved houses, the complex had a tennis court converted into a dog play area. She loved going there, though we could never get her to actively do any of the tricks that they had set up!

She was also always the first to sniff the flowers (among other things!). If there was ever a flower bed nearby, chances are she’s peed in it.

At every apartment, she loved to sit in laps. Our laps, our friends laps, our family’s laps. One memorable time in LA, she ran out from her kennel during an earthquake and dive-bombed into Adrienne’s mother’s lap. To her, that was the safest place to be!

She also loved to give WTF! faces. Casey was never amused with the whole selfie craze.

Casey took walks every day, and many of her pictures are from this angle. Or of her butt and tail. She always liked to walk on the left side of us. And she liked to ‘herd’ people. If you’re walking in a group, she loved to make sure everyone was close by!

Casey was a very curious dog, always looking to where the cats were going too. Especially if Nami had some evil genius plan for getting more treats.

And still through it all, she sat on laps. Lots and lots of lap cuddles.

And still through it all, she loved her family. She always wanted to be included in everything, whether it was just sitting on the couch or going on an adventure.

She would even sleep next to Dante (on very rare occasions!!). They didn’t always get a long, but cuddles with Adrienne were far too important for bickering.

And always she cuddled with Nami, her best friend and cohort.

She was still a dog though, so, you know…

Every city we moved to, Casey had new parks to go to and explore.

She was a dog full of an abundance of energy and love.

She was also photogenic. So photogenic! (Especially when there wasn’t flash!)

She loved to play with balls, more than any other toy. She loved tennis balls especially, and would share them with Nami. Nami loved to snuggled and play with them after Casey got them all good and slobbery.

She loved to roll in the grass. She wasn’t so fond of the fleas she’d get, but she LOVED rolling in the grass.

And she was almost, allllmost always extremely well behaved. It was pretty rare for her to rip something up though. Usually it was paper towels!

As all dogs do, she loved food. Unique though, was her friendship with Nami, and their shared love of food. Anytime Hunter would leave the house, he’d feed them all a treat and Nami and Casey would fight for the ones they wanted.

She loved sunbeams from the very beginning, and would try and position her bedding near windows.

She could wear the hell out of a bandanna. And sweaters. Casey loved wearing them and would sit nice and still for Adrienne to put them on!

Casey loved cuddling on the couch.

She loved helping to program, like with her buddy Mark.

She loved wrestling with friends, like Butch.

And she loved cuddling with friends, like Anthony.

So many couches! And beds!

She appropriated Adrienne’s monkey, and kept it safe for the rest of her life. Here’s a photo of Casey with monkey in 2009. She never once ripped Monkey apart and kept him in great condition.

She loved the ocean. It was always so cold for her, but she loved to dip her toes into the water and chase the waves!

And she really loved it when she found out that’s where fish came from! We watched some fisherman off a pier in Marina Del Rey reel in a fish and it was like the light bulb went off for her! She got so excited watching that fish fly through the air!

Every day Casey went on a walk or four. She loved adventure.

She loved being silly.

She went mountain climbing with Hunter and her friend Kathleen

She loved it when we moved to Seattle, and like all good Seattle dogs she loved to make coffee runs.

She still took her mother’s monkey with her.

And she loved playing with stuffed animals

And still loved tennis balls the best.

She went on Seattle road trips

And went camping

And swimming in creeks and rivers and the sound.

What a fashion sense!

She would go skateboarding with Hunter

And was always best friends with Adrienne

Naptime

In 2014 Casey moved into a house with two big yards all her own. She spent the next three years in happiness.

Taking naps in sunbeams!

Takaing naps on two different couches!

Playing with toys while Hunter and Adrienne were working (or not working!)

Pointing at noises.

Jumping down porch steps

Taking silly photos

Family photos

Napping by windows

Napping with Nami

Playing with more balls

Getting excited about toys

Begging for treats (and getting them)

Spending the days telecommuting with Adrienne

Kissing everyone

Wagging her tail

Chewing things

Being excited

Wearing raincoats

Posing for awesome photos

Being loved

Being silly and loved

Being caught cuddling with Nami

Not wanting to take selfies

Going through a plethora of stuffed animals

Being happy

Sitting by the fire

Staying extra warm by the fire

Staying wrapped up with Hunter

Staying happy, every day.

Watching TV

Being cute

Sleeping with toys

Going to the park

Looking out the window with Nami

Walking in the woods

Getting kisses

Taking car rides

Spending time with Adrienne

##Editors notes Casey was a smart dog, who learned tricks quickly and loved to make people happy. Casey stayed with Lynn during a house fire. Lynn had accidentally set the oven on fire and had to evacuate Casey to the car until after the firefighters left. Casey pooped on my mom’s floor the first time we brought her for a visit. Casey ran across an intersection and for a mile through traffic the first time she went off leash. Casey out-ran a greyhound, she was a fast, wonderful runner who loved it. Casey crossed the country from Indiana to Los Angeles. She had the back of the hatchback car all to herself. She peed in the Rockies, she peed in the Mojave desert, and she never complained once during the trip. Casey crossed the country again vertically from LA to Seattle. Casey was an escape artist–the first time we took her to a pet store together, she wiggled out of her harness and ran around a bank for a good 15 minutes before the store clerk brought out some treats to bring her back in.