Cassie:- Jan 2004 to 7th June 2007

hhistory

24th Jan 2004 Cassi makes it though the night with-out crying! (Very spooky sound at 2am! Sounds JUST like a little baby crying!)

26th Jan 2004 Cassi goes to the block for the first time. (see photos further down)

Prehistory: Terry has been nagging at us to get a dog. Bens not really the dog type....no real reason. His family has never "owned" a dog (they dog sat a few over the years), owned plenty of cats, but never a dog.
Anyway, this was not putting Terry off. He nagged and nagged and nagged. Freddy picked up on it. She started nagging. So, now the question became, not if, but when. Finally we got down to what kind. Freddy always liked the Keeshond (Dutch barge dog). Ben was not thrilled with the long hair nature of the thing......Terry borrowed a dog bread book from the school library. Looking though it (with out the rest of the family), Ben picked out 3 or 4 different breads that he liked the look / sound of. Hitting the net narrowed it down to 1. A Japanese Shiba Inu. Freddy did not like the lively sound of the nature, but she was not totally against the idea. Ben didn't say to much to the kids, they were not interested in what kind of dog, just when!
Freddy was looking in the trading post one day when she saw an add for just the mutt, and in country Victoria. We gave them a call and went to have a look.
Of course the kids liked what they saw, that was never in question. Ben and Freddy liked the look and smell (there is none) and so a deposit was paid.
Up to this point Ben had the perfect stalling plan. We all had to agree on a name for the thing before we even started looking. So alls Ben had to do was keep saying that he didn't like the name and hey-presto, no dog! That was working great until Freddy suggested the name Opto. (yeah, I know, pretty sad, but there you go). Well, he could hardly disagree with that one, so Opto it was......however after seeing the dogs we all agreed that SHE (we put the deposit down on a female) didn't really suite the name Opto. So, in the car on the way home we started the quest for a name for the thing.......now you have to remember, that this game had been going on for some months now and none of us could come up with a name that we all liked! Bens friend Tony came to the "rescue" with the idea that we could vote on a name. The idea is that we write down all the names we like. Put them in one list, then everyone gives a points score to each name. The more you like it, the more points you give it (eg, 12 names, means each name gets a number from 1 to 12, no doubles). Then, each person reads out the name and their points for that name. The top (say 5 names) scoring names go into the next round and so on.......well, the problem is that it was sort of to be Terry's dog, and his favorite name got voted out in the 2nd round cause none of the rest of us liked it.....by the last round we had two names that two of us liked and 2 of us didn't like.....to make things ever harder Terry was in tears and Amy was losing interest in the whole thing.......so, to cut a long drawn out story short, Ben happen to be flicking though his copy of "Astronomy 2004" and saw the name Cassiopeia and though Cassi was pretty, the rest of the family thought so to. Cassi it was.

.20th Jan 2004 Cassi arrives home.

We took ownership of Cassi today. Bit of a lumpy start. Ben was stuck at work and there was a misunderstanding on the price, so it was a bit stressful for Freddy, but we got there in the end. In a nutshell, we got her at a "reduced" price (i.e. what we thought she was in the first place) on the condition that we allow the sellers to have a litter from her. Only time will tell how that arrangement works out (knowing our luck she will have the pups around feast time 2005).

It goes with out saying that Terry is totally smitten with the thing!	Amy also is showing signs of liking the little critter.
With a face like this, who could not like it?	Ben is not so sure of the nursing thing, little puppy's grow up! And then what? Its used to nursing and "suddenly" one day no-one wants it on their lap?
Ok for now, but after school holidays are over, I think the rules will change!	Very hard to take a picture of a little dog on a big bush block! She really loves it up there.
Has Ben got a soft spot for the dog???? He's not letting on, but photos like this don't help!	Oh, great! Now there are three woman in the house!
There is no doubt that Freddy has fallen for the mutt!	Bens favorite photo..... Cassi is looking out her dog door. The flap is held up with a hard drive magnet because Cassi is not big enough to get though and push the flap out the way yet.
There is no doubt that the kids have fallen for the mutt!	Ben still wont admit a soft spot for the thing, but again, photos like this sure don't help.....