Some of My Favorite Memories of Cassi

Here are a few of my favorite memories of one of the best dogs anyone could hope to have. She loved people and she was always fishing for some good petting (or a treat). She never knew a stranger, but if she had met you before, you could tell she remembered you.

Our First Impression

When we picked her up from the Atlanta Humane Society, she was calm and just laying there in the corner, while her brothers and sisters were playing together. She was the cutest and calmest, which was why we picked her. As we going through the adoption process, we asked ‘Is she always this calm?’, the lady said, ‘No, she just had her shots!’. Little did we know, calm was not in her personality at all.

Picking out a Name

We were having a very hard time picking out a name for our new puppy we had just adopted. It had been 3 or 4 days and we couldn't decide on a name, but we wanted it to be a good one. We had gone out with some friends and we found ourselves alone and still trying to think of a name for Cassi. Letha was getting upset, because she started thinking if we can’t even pick out a name, how are we going to take care of a pet. A little more brain storming that night lead to thinking of Astronomy names, and Letha’s favorite constellation – Cassiopeia, Cassi for short, perfect!

The First Walk

Still one of the funniest stories I can think of is when we took Cassi for her first walk. We went for a walk around the block in Home Park where Letha lived. After a few minutes into the walk, she sat down. After a little coaxing, we got her going again. Then a few minutes later, she sat down again. We finally realized she was sitting because she was scared of the cars going by. I think she sat down 15 times on that walk. Very soon going on walks would turn into one of her favorite things to do, with or without cars zooming by.

Cassi’s Favorite "Chew-toys"

Getting used to a new puppy in an apartment is a little difficult. Cassi was a big chewer! Shoes, furniture, really anything not put away, but the heels of Letha’s shoes were her favorite. Letha lost so many pairs of shoes. I can remember her going to work with chewed up shoes, because Cassi had just chewed her last pair of good shoes.

Treats, Treats, Treats!

I think Cassi lived for her next treat. She would get a dog biscuit in the morning and another before bed time. If we ever forgot a treat at the usual treat time, we would soon be reminded of our mistake. One day our neighbor made the mistake of giving Cassi a dog biscuit, for the next 6 months every time he would drive up or walk out of his house, Cassi would bark until she was able to convince our neighbor it was time for another treat.

The Bog Biscuit Box Incident

While I was still in college, Cassi would spend some days with me at the Fraternity house, and most days with Letha at her apartment. She loved coming over to the Fraternity house to play with our house dog Alex, and Alex loved to see Cassi too. One day when she was staying with me, my roommate and I had we had gone to bed, and at about 3 in the morning, I hear this crash, then a thud, then another crash. I yell ‘Cassi!’ the noise stops, I look down from my loft and see Cassi frozen (because she thought she was in trouble) front paws on the couch back paws on the floor with a dog biscuit box on her head. She had pulled it out of the garbage and found some crumbs in the bottom of the box, and had gotten her whole head stuck in the box.

Feeding Time

I have never seen a daintier dog at meal time. Cassi was a free feeding dog, which means she would always have food in her dish and would eat at her leisure. She would eat her food in sections from her bowl. First she would eat a quarter of her food, it looked like someone used pie scoop to lift out the food. If any pieces of food fell into the empty space, they were eaten first. Also when drinking, I don’t think she spilled a single drip of water while drinking her whole life. She would put her top lip on the back of the water dish and gently drink her water. I’m not kidding I don’t think she ever spilled a drop.

Tricks For Treats

Another of Cassi’s favorite pastimes was doing tricks. She didn't need special treats; she would do tricks for her own food. She loved playing catch (behind the back, between the legs – she was a master), shake (with both hands), speaking on command, high five, speaking, playing dead, all you would need to do point your finger and say bang, and she would totally lay still except for her tail, which was wagging the whole time. The one trick I was never able to get her to do was to roll over. She hated the feeling of being on her back.

Chasing Wild Life

Just like every dog, Cassi loved to chase Squirrels, possums and other small animals. But living in the country (Cherokee County GA), Cassi had a chance to chase another type of wild life. I let the dogs out one morning, and Cassi paused for a second and then took off. I look up and see a wild turkey standing in our yard about 4 feet tall. It sees Cassi and starts to slowly take off. Cassi jumped and probably came within a foot of getting the turkey by the tail. The next week one of our neighbors was talking about a wild story one of their kids kept telling about Cassi chasing an ostrich in our back yard.

Cassi’s Favorite Game

One of Cassi’s favorite games was to play “Blanket of Death”. I guess the title of the game requires a little explaining. Cassi loved lying on our old comforters. So, I would put my hands under the blanket and she would try to gently bite my hands, but in this game, the blanket “bit” back. We would play this game for hours at a time, and she always seemed disappointed when the game was over.

The Escape Artist

Cassi lived in 3 different houses all with fenced yards. And she escaped from all of them multiple times in multiple ways. There were a few months in our house in Roswell, where she would escape during the day while Letha and I were at work, doing who knows what, but she would be back in the back yard before we got back home. Sometimes I think she was a little too smart. One day our retired neighbor asked, “Did you know your dog gets out of the back yard every day?”, so the next Saturday, we watched her sneak out of the fence. She was so sneaky! She started towards the fence, slowly. Then she stopped, and looked back at the house. Then she took a few more steps. Then she would look back at the house. This pattern would repeat until she reached the hole in the fence where she planned her escape. This was just one of many places where we had to fix our fence.

The Civil Engineer

We are not sure if Cassi loved to dig or if digging was a way to tell us she was bored. Maybe it was a little of both. She would dig enormous holes, that she would disappear into, and come out covered in Georgia red clay. She always looked forward to spring planting season, because it was easier to get a hole started when all she needed to do was to pull out a freshly planted plant. I remember coming back from work one Monday and looking in the back yard at the 4 $35 knockout roses that I had just planted the day before. They were gone - torn to pieces, all the holes were perfectly cleaned out. I’m sure she excavated several tons of dirt over her lifetime. She even has some nice holes in the yard of the new California house that I still need to fill in.

The Speed of Cassi

Cassi was one of the fastest dogs I have ever seen. I know she wasn't as fast as a Greyhound, but for her size she was fast. If she ever got into an open space she loved running as fast as she could. There was only one other dog that I can remember that was close to her speed and size. We had gone up to visit Letha’s brother, Kris and his family in Virginia, Kelli’s parents live on a farm, and they let us ride 4-wheelers in their fields. Cassi was having so much fun trying to race the 4-wheelers. Soon another dog showed up. It was a Border collie. It was also a very fast dog. They started to race each other, they were both running side by side at full speed for about 30 or 40 minutes, then Cassi’s stamina started to go, and the Border collie started to run circles around her. But for those 40 minutes, she kept up with that other fast dog.

She also loved to visit Letha’s parent’s house. They have a huge flat yard, and Cassi would run full speed in huge circles for hours (the first day). The next day she would rest and tend to her blistered paws.

When my parents bought a lake house in Tennessee, and South Carolina, we found out that Cassi was a boat dog, she would sit in the back of the boat with her head in the air and sniff the wind as we traveled around the lake. When it was sunny and she would get hot, there was a spot in the front of the boat where she would go for shade.

She loved going fast.

In The Lead

I have watched all the dog training / behavior shows, and they all said dogs should walk beside their masters. We tried using the training techniques as they described, but Cassi never really bought into the idea of not being in the lead. I guess it was the husky in her. She would have been a great sled dog!

The BIG Walks

We had grand plans of hiking the whole Appalachian Trail (we still may), so we would plan day or weekend hikes on different sections of the trail. Occasionally Cassi would get to come with us on our hikes, and she loved it. She never wanted to stop. Letha and I would need a break, but after a few minutes of rest, Cassi would start getting anxious, and want to get going again. In less populated areas, we would let her off the leash, and she would run ahead until she was almost out of site, then she would run back to check on us. She probably went twice as far as Letha and me on those hikes. The longest we ever hiked in one day with Cassi was 16 miles, again, not sure how far Cassi went that day, but it was much farther than 16 miles!

Riding In The Car

Cassi loved taking rides in the car. There were two incidents I can remember where the car ride wasn't that much fun for her. Like all dogs she loved sticking her head out the window. When she was in the car, she always wanted us to roll down the window - all the way down. We never really worried about her because she always seemed sure footed. But this one day, I guess she was leaning a little too far. Letha was driving in a residential area, not very fast and all of a sudden, she hears Cassi's paws scrape, and she was gone. Luckily there were no other cars around. Letha slamed on the brakes, and looked in the rear view mirror and there is Cassi looking a little dazed sitting in the middle of the street. She wasn't hurt, but from then on, the window was only halfway down for Cassi.

Another time was when I had my first fender bender. Some older gentleman had slamed on his brakes at a yield sign, and I couldn't stop in time, Cassi was in the front seat and she slid up the dash and hit the windshield. The windshield cracked and Cassi was dazed once again. When I opened the door to check the damage, Cassi jumped out of the car and it took me 10 minutes to catch her and get her back in the car.

Playing Chicken With Cars

Cassi liked living on the edge, although she didn't know it. When she would escape from our yard, or when she was up at Letha's parents house she would head straight for the busiest street. I can remember trying to chase her down after she excaped from our house in Roswell, she knew she was in trouble and while trying to evade capture, she sprinted right in front of a Jeep Wrangler going about 35 miles an hour. The Jeep missed her by about 2 feet. Lucky!

Unfortunately she was not always that lucky. We had gone up to Letha's parents house for the weekend, and we had left for an Easter celebration at Letha's old church. Her parents were going to stay home and watch the dogs. We had been there for a couple of hours when we got a voice mail message from Letha's mother that said Cassi had been hit by car. We rush back to the vet where they had taken Cassi. The car hit her on the back hip, and had dislocated her back leg. One of the neighbors was out working in his yard and had seen the whole thing. Cassi was laying in the middle of the street and he pulled her out of the street to the grass. He let Letha's mom know what had happened, she knew she had to get Cassi to the vet, but every time she tried to move Cassi she would yelp with pain. After about 20 minutes Cassi realized she would have to do this on her own, so she hopped on 3 legs, yelping with each step, into the car, and layed down in the passenger seat. The vet said the only thing she could do was pop it back into place and tape it up and let it heal, but warned she would probably have problems with her hip for the rest of her life. The next 3 weeks she would be on 3 legs while her hip healed. She did pretty well on 3 legs! When we took of the bandage, she took a few 'test' steps, and took off running, we had to slow her down over the next week but she never had another problem with her hip.

Meeting Halley

Cassi wasn't too sure about the first meeting with Halley. She walked up to Halley to get a sniff and a 5-pound, scared, malnourished, skin and bones, half-blind new dog took a vicious snap at her with surprising speed. It even scared me. We had to keep them separated for about 2 weeks, while we nursed Halley back to health. We had the basement split into two halves. After about a week, I went down to the basement to check on the dogs, and there was one place in the garage where Cassi could see Halley, and they were just standing there staring at each other and wagging their tails. After we let them get together, it didn't take long for Halley to latch onto Cassi as her new "mommy", for the next four years, they were rarely more than a few feet apart.

This is Jonas' favorite memory of Cassi - He wants to see it all the Time!

April 1997 - March 15th 2010 (With lots of good times in between)

Girl we are going to miss you!