The Four-Legged Adventures of Cas

Dog people are all the same. We love our pets more than we love anything else. We spoil them, give them treats, and take them on adventures that we wouldn't normally go on ourselves. They make us better, kinder, more patient people. As soon as someone asks that fatal question "Do you have a dog?", we light up. Proud as punch showing off photos of our furry babies, telling strangers about their character and the funny habits that they posses. In my experience, dogs bring people together, they encourage us to socialise with people we wouldn't normally, to make unsuspecting friends.

As many people know, huskies are chatty, sassy, and scarily smart. From a young age, Cas earned the nickname Casper because of his ability to escape from any pen, room, or enclosure you dared put him in. He would sit at my side, watching how I installed the puppy gate to prevent him from entering the rest of the house when we didn't want him to, only to later uninstall said gate and get into the rest of the house when we didn't want him to! He would unbuckle his seatbelt when we were in the car because he wanted to be in the front with us. 'Smart' when talking about a husky just doesn't seem to cut it.

I think the most ironic fact about our story is that I had never intended to get a dog. Of course I'd dreamed of having a dog, what child didn't? But the closest we got to childhood pets were a pair of budgies who, in their age, no longer liked to be held or petted. Which defeats the purpose of having pets in the first place! So when we went to play with the new litter of adorable little husky puppies a friends dog had recently birthed, I never dreamed I'd walk away with one.

Five years later and I believe it was the best thing to ever happen to me. Cas is my other half. My friend through it all. He is aware of my every mood and emotion and is the one constant that I have in my life. After five years of adventures and memories, it's hard to simply focus on one. There's the countless car trips where he would lay on the backseat and use the glove box as a pillow so he could rest his head against my elbow, or how he greets me every time I come home with the husky version of 'Hello Mum', or the many 'conversations' we'd have about how it's not quite dinner time that would span five minutes of back and forth about how he's dying of starvation.

When we moved to where my mum now resides, we knew barely a handful of the neighbours. After getting Cas, we suddenly became friends with all of them! Embarrassingly, we learnt the dog names before the human names, but we got there a lot quicker because of Cas' social side and his nosiness that he simply MUST know every dog and person we walk past. Even neighbours at the opposite end of the street grew to know us, as Cas' new moniker of 'The Dog That Always Lays Down' spread through the street. This was because he would throw himself on the ground every second house as he wanted to stop and smell the flowers, or play in the sprinkler, or because he knew we were on the way home and he didn't want to go back inside.

His character is obvious even to those who haven't met him, and he makes me laugh constantly. His love of water is a constant source of amusement amongst our family and friends. My mum would always use the hose while she watered the garden as a toy for him to play with, and I would often come home to find the pair of them soaked more than the plants! Though he's not such a fan of getting a bath (yes, I can attest that those videos of huskies screaming while at the groomers are not faked!), he loves to swim.

Our first ever trip to the beach will always stay with me. We crested the sand dune and began making our way down the soft sand when he caught a whiff of the ocean and proceeded to drag me the remaining 50 metres to the water line, where he promptly flopped onto his side in the shallows while the waves washed over him. It was near impossible for me to get him to move after he had discovered the cool ocean water. And even then, he would alternate sides that he'd drop onto every ten feet or so. It makes for very long, drawn out beach trips. But his joy and enjoyment are contagious, and always make it worthwhile.

Adventures and getting out and about are all a part of being a dog owner. The memories that you make together last you a lifetime, and it is time well spent in good company. But adventure and exploring the outdoors isn't all there is to having a dog in your life. There's also the quiet moments, when your pet is sleeping and looking so content and peaceful that you feel your heart swell and a smile subconsciously tugs at your mouth. When they choose to sit with you (or more often than not, ON you) just to feel you near and remind you that they are there for you. Those are also memories that you should cherish.

Cas has taught me many things, like not to take life too seriously, to laugh through the tears, and that it's ok to be a little bit sassy. Even though our adventures are few and far between these days (he has injured his knee and requires surgery which his insurance is refusing to cover), we still make the most of every day, and our adventures include snuggles in every room of the house, playing catch (where I throw the ball, he catches in his mouth and, with a flick of his head, tosses it back), and howling matches with my partner who knows the exact frequency needed to set Cas off in an unstoppable tirade of husky sass.

He is and always will be my best friend, and I would take never having an item of clothing that doesn't have husky hair on it over not having him in my life any day. We have so many beautiful memories, and we have time to make so many more. That's what 'Living Life Unleashed' means to us. That's what having a dog is all about.

(Now it was too difficult to decide which photos to include and which didn't make the cut, so please enjoy some more photos of my handsome little man...)