Sunday night after the Superbowl I got a text from my father asking if I was still up and can talk. He usually doesn't text me late at night, so I was wondering what he wanted to say. He called me and said, "It's Casey". Casey is our 13-year-old Beagle who has been a part of the family for around 10 years. She has slowed down over the past couple of years and has been battling cancer for a while now. I knew right when he said those words that she had died.

Even with her being old for a dog and having cancer it still surprised me. She was really sick about 2 summers ago, to the point where we thought we were going to have to put her down, but she made an amazing recovery, sure she still didn't do much during the day and lied around the house on the couch or on her pet bed, but she was still able to do everything that she used to do, just not as active.

I didn't realize that when I left the house in the first week of January to return to Delaware for the winter session that I would be seeing her for the last time. I was worried that while being away at school for long periods of time, she wouldn't be there to welcome me when I returned home. Even when she started to get sick, I didn't want to think about not having her as a part of our family, time really does fly by though.

I still remember the day we got Casey, it was right at the beginning of the school year and my Dad told us that our Mom had a present for us. At this time my mom was a judge and her friend that was a bailiff found a stray dog walking around the courthouse. It was a Beagle with no tags and at the time my father, my brother, and I all wanted to get a dog. We actually were looking into getting a Beagle for a few months before this happened. My mom was the only one who was hesitant about it since she thought she would be the one left to take care of the dog. However, she finally caved and gave in to bringing Casey home with us, she was a true rescue dog and turned out to be a pure-bread Beagle. She loved having a home where she was spoiled and cared for, we could tell the first day we got her she was so happy to come home with us. Even though she loved to have people pet her she also liked her personal space, if you tried to hug her for too long or get too close she would growl a little and sometimes snap as her way of saying "back off", this was most likely her defense mechanism kicking in which she probably needed while being on her own.

Casey loved to be outside, we had an electric fence put up for her so she could roam outside in both the front and backyard. She loved to bark and howl at other dogs when they passed by on their walks. She always made her presence felt around dinnertime when she would sit next to the table and pant and bark enough until someone would give her some food.

It was a great match for her to be paired up with my family, it's tough to think of her not being here anymore because she made herself so noticeable in our lives. There would be times where I didn't want to stay home and watch her if I wanted to go out, or if I had to take her out on walks, but I would trade that to have her here a little bit longer. I guess you never really think you are going to lose someone until they are gone.

Even though I am sad to see her go, I am happy that she was a part of our lives and that she lived a long and full life.