Loyal dog, crazy owner

When we got our dog Casey about 6 1/2 years ago, we saw potential. His tiny puppy face was so adorable. He was sleepy and so sweet when we went to the farm to pick him out. His father is a pure bread Siberian Husky and his mom is a black lab mix that wandered into the yard and hooked up with the crazy Husky. The puppies that resulted were interesting. There was one white one that looked just like his daddy, a chubby black boy, 2 mixed color girls, and Casey. He looks the most like his sisters. I guess I would have preferred a girl, but they were both spoken for. The owners were planning to keep the white one, as they were getting rid of the dad and keeping the mom. That left us with the roly black one and the little guy that was sleeping in the box. We woke up the little guy and he was the only one that didn't chew on Matt's shoe. lol They were only 6 1/2 weeks old, but the owners assured us that they were weaned and fine to go on their merry ways. We chose the sleepy guy and paid a $75 adoption fee. As we let him say goodbye to his family, his mom jumped up, put her paws on Matt's shoulders, and gave him a lick on the cheek. She then gave an affectionate nudge to her first son to leave the nest, and walked back to her other babies. That should have been our first indication. We soon discovered that he was sleeping because he had been terrorizing the whole place the entire day.

Wasn't he just too adorable? Who could say no to that face? Oh, yeah. The people whose shoes, rocking chair, and camcorder cable he decided to chew on. We said no a lot that first year. He was great at staying in the yard for awhile. Then he started wandering a bit. We had to tie him up. Unfortunately, he is a husky. He likes to run. He did that a LOT until rather recently. When we moved to Chilton when he was a bit over a year old, I vividly remember watching a lady walking down the road with a pretty dog following right behind her as if on a leash. Except that he wasn't on a leash. And it was our dog! We met a lot of neighbors with "I'm sorry, he likes to run. He's friendly, just kind of dumb. Could you, um, grab his collar please? Thanks!" He was great with the cat, since we had her a couple years before we got him. He was kind of raised by her. They're practically the same color and get along rather well. This is them back about 5 years when we lived in Chilton (I had somehow not had the date on my camera set right, so ignore that date in the corner. It was 2004.)

In those eyes we always saw the love and loyalty. He has food allergies and itches and/or gets the runs if he eats the wrong things. He doesn't do fetch. He does do tug. He loves to play tug. With ropes, socks, tennis balls...yeah, he's odd. He likes to be vacuumed, which happens quite frequently during the shedding seasons since he sheds a LOT. And he is phenomenal with the kids. He doesn't tug hard with them, he tolerates them climbing on him to a point, and I truly believe that if any of his family were in trouble he would do what dogs do to help us.

One of his quirks has always been bedtime. He likes to go to bed by about 10pm. However, very rarely will be go to sleep if anyone is not in their beds. He will sit and stare at us or lay next to us and sigh if we're not going to bed when he wants. He has grown to a rather chunky 89 pounds and doesn't get walked enough. He's never turned down a walk, but I know that after midnight he thinks I'm crazy if I try to take him for a walk with me. And that brings us to tonight and the title of this entry.

I am up to a 40 pound weight loss and very excited about that. I have let my diet slip a lot more lately, simply because I've discovered that I can make some concessions and still lose. Exercise is a key component to that working, though. Today I had a horrible migraine and after Samantha's softball game I didn't feel like cooking so we ate at Pizza Ranch. I did well at first. A large salad, some fruit, and a piece of chicken. Then it went downhill. A yummy piece of pepperoni pizza, 4 breadsticks, and a piece of dessert pizza left me feeling really guilty. When Matt went to bed at midnight, I tried but couldn't sleep. At 12:45 I decided that since it's around 70 degrees out and I love the peace of nighttime, I wanted to take a walk. It's generally agreed that when I go walking after dark I should take the dog with me. Well, the dog and my cell phone. I was laying in bed with Matt and Casey was happily snoozing next to the bed. I got up and casually said "Casey, do you want to go for a walk?" At the word "walk" his ears naturally perk up. He lifted his head and his eyes said "oh, yeah right. You're going to walk? Now?" I got up and he cautiously rose to see if I was serious. I got out socks and he cocked his head as if to ask me. When I got my tennis shoes, he was practically smiling. He was awake and ready to go. He stood by me while I got ready and I think if he had thumbs he would have put his leash on himself. I grabbed my cell phone, MP3 player, a flashlight, and we headed out.

We set a good pace. He's become quite the good walker. I use a 4 foot leash and he walks next to me so nicely it barely tugs. I heard him start breathing harder about 10 minutes in. At 15 minutes he was giving me the "alright, is anyone else really warm?" look. At 20 minutes his tongue was lolled out to the side and I noticed him falling behind me just the slightest bit. We got back to our road after 25 minutes. I expected him to be rushing to get to our yard since he was breathing like he'd just run a marathon. In his defense, it was rainy today and it's still quite humid out. But really. Out of shape much, Dog? We got home at the 30 minute mark and to his credit I will say that as we came up the driveway he gave me the "what? I can keep going. Let's go some more" look. Since I happen to like the dog and don't want to give him a heart attack, I declined and we came inside. We have been home nearly an hour at this point and he's STILL panting hard next to me. But giving me the look asking if we're going to go out more, or if we can go to bed now.

It's as if I can see in his eyes what he's thinking. "Seriously, crazy human. I do love to walk, but could you do it at a normal time? Maybe during the daylight? I mean, if you need a flashlight it's probably too dark." I love my dog and I love that he's so loyal and wonderful. But I do need to get him in shape. I wonder if he'd get used to 1am walks if we did it every night.