Casey

Our life has been delightfully upended by the addition of Casey, a white boxer. Casey is deaf--CULTURALLY deaf :) He has been deaf since birth. The story of how he came to us is thought-provoking.

With the loss of Miss Minnie last spring, we knew that at some point we would want another dog. We figured we would get a pug, because we know and love that breed (and I swore I'd never have anything else). For a long time, we just weren't ready. About a month ago, I started to think it might be time. I saw several ads in newspapers for pug puppies for sale. I even made a few contacts and tentative plans to go see litters of pups. Nothing came together; in some cases, schedules just didn't allow us to see a litter before it was gone. In other cases, all that were left were black males, and we wanted to leave that role to Leo. At any rate, it just wasn't coming together and I basically gave up and figured I'd try again later. Besides, with my schedule of driving to Fargo for days at a time and our days already filled to the brim, it seemed kind of stupid to bring more work into the house.

So then one day I was driving home from Fargo, on the phone with my mom, and she mentioned that Britta (my cousin) was working with a deaf white boxer and thought it would be perfect for Hans. It caught my interest right away, but I didn't think it could work out.

Well, here I prefer to just make a long story short. Suffice it to say we now have a beautiful new family member and he has definitely made himself at home (on my bed, on my couch, head in my toilet). He is EXTREMELY bright and learns extremely fast. He picked up on the invisible fence in a snap, and knows and response to several signs. I should mention that he is without question Daddy's boy. They clicked right away.

I'm sure readers will wonder how fares the pug. If he could talk, he would mostly be saying "Would you just screw off?". But I am catching glimpses of friendship forming. After weeks of Casey chasing Leo, today Leo chased Casey. It was too funny. Casey has this thing with flashlights and will follow a light anywhere. So I was making circles with a light on the living room floor and Casey was chasing it in a circle and Leo was chasing Casey in a circle. Truly a hilarious sight. I will try to get it on tape.

I'm nearly done with this semester------------and then only one semester to go to finish my BSN and RN. That will be quite welcome.