5/27/11 - We have had some interest in Kasey lately so I thought I should update you on his progress.  Kasey is not an easy going, easy to handle dog.  He is very high maintenance.  It has taken him the last 6 months to begin to get confortable with human beings.  He was very scared of humans and completely untrusting.  He would growl and nip at people in a heart beat.  That is the main reason he was returnedd after being adopted last year.  Through lots of love and reassurance, he is now fine with people, no more growling or nipping.  He will now look me in the eyes which he would never do before, and gives me little kisses.  Two months ago he started to bring me him bone to play with him and that was a real break through.  Before that he would only play with the other dogs, not humans.  But he is still very much a work in progress.  He is a jumper - he can jump over fences and we have had to add wiring to the top of our fences and the railing on our deck.  A 4' fence won't deter him at all!  He doesn't go anywhere when he jumps out of the yard, but just runs around and around the house.  We live in a very low traffic area, but still worry that he may run out into the road.  He also still jumps on people.  Any time someone new comes into the house he jumps on them.  We now put him on a leash or more him to another part of the house.  We have tried everything to stop the jumping but to no avail.  He is also a chewer.  Every day he chews something!  We are very lucky that so far he has not chewed anything of value.  His favorites were baby bottles and now sippy cups and plastic container that food has been in.  When we have the recyclables on the counter to go to the garage, he always manages to get them off the counter and chew on them no matter how far back we put them.  And we cannot leave any food out anywhere because he is a counter surfer.  He can even reach things way at the back of the counter.  Kasey is getting along pretty well with my 2 Boxers but sometimes he is a bit too much for them.  He wants to play non stop and at 7 and 8 they need to take breaks from playing more often than Kasey does.  We had to install a chain link fence gate inside our house in the hall to keep him separated from the other dogs when feeding and when we have company.  He chewed through the 2 tier wood baby gates, so we have a 6 ft. high chain link fence gate in the hallway, not very astheically pleasing, but it does the job.  So as I said in the beginning, Kasey is a work in progress at 2 yrs old.  He needs a lot of love and patience and training.

11/6/10 - Unfortunately Kasey was returned to rescue.  He was displaying a high level of separation anxiety when the family had to be away from the house.  He also did not have any other doggie companions which we now think will be necessary for a home for him.  The family tried to crate him but he destroyed the crate.  They could just not handle him when they had to be away.  He bonded well with the husband and wife, but did not bond with the 17 yr old daughter which is who they wanted a dog for.  After about 2 hrs. back here with us, he had readjusted to our 2 resident Boxers and we have not had a problem since.  He has settled down considereably and is not jumping up nearly as much as he was.  He seems to be very comfortable here with us.

10/23/10 - Kasey has been adopted

10/20/10 - Kasey is pending adoption

10/4/10 - Kasey has taken another major step - he is now allowed out with our other dogs when we are not home!!  He has free roam of a limited portion of the house and has been very good and has not gotten into anything or destroyed anything.  We left him alone for a 7 hr. stretch on Sat. and he was very good.  I have tons of dog toys around and he is always chewing on them.  If the kids leave a toy by accident, he will chew on it as anything on the floor is fair game!!  Kasey is your typical Boxer and does not like to get wet or get his paws wet.  We had a couple of rainy days last week and we had to make him go outside.  One rainy stormy night he did have an accident in the house.  He was very scared by the lightening and thunder and huddled up in a ball beside my chair.   Kasey really gives my boys a workout, they run around the house full speed like it is a raceway!  I think my boys are losing some much needed weight in the process. 
Kasey accidently got out the front door last week when my husband went to get a package.  He didn't even know that Kasey got out.  A little while later, he went out the door to the garage and there was Kasey standing there waiting to be let in.  He has gotten lose 3 times now, but has not tried to run at all, he comes right to the door instead.  To the right are 3 pictures of Kasey with my grand daughter.

9/24/10 - Kasey has been doing very well and is now allowed to sleep in the family room all night long with our other 2 Boxers.  This is a major step for him and he is so happy not to have to be separated at night.  He is still leaning the "off" command and is jumpy when new people come into the house.  I tried putting a halter on him instead of a collar and it did work, but it seemed to make him itch terribly and he kept scratching trying to get it off and actually cut through it with his nails, so we went back to the collar.  I no longer keep a leash on him 24/7 as it was getting very dirty and I was having to wash it daily, so now I just keep leashes handly around the house and slip on on when someone comes to the house.

9/12/10 - Kasey had a very good weekend.  We went away for the day on Sat. and were anxious as to how he would do not being let out for 9 hrs. during the day but he was just fine - no messes at all.  He was separated in the hallway from the other dogs but had his toys to play with.  He has been taking turns with our dogs sitting on our laps during the evening and he just loves to snuggle up on one of our laps and take a nap.  Most of the time I find them each on a dog bed sleeping.
The only other time that I do not let Kasey out into the main house is when I am babysitting my 1 1/2 yr. old grand daughter because when the dogs get racing around, they could knock her over in a heart beat.  Just Kasey with her is fine, but all three is just too much.    This little boy really needs a home of his own.  He has so much love to give!!

9/9/10 - Kasey and my 2 Boxers are out in the house together most of the time now.  I still feed Kasey separately and he sleeps in his own area, but most of the rest of the time he is loose in the house with the other two.  It does get a little loud sometimes as they run around chasing one another usually for a toy.  Rocco is being very nice to Kasey, but as I mentioned before, Kaiser if not at all the gracious host!  Kasey is learning to sit and not jump up when someone comes into the house.  We keep a short leash on him most of the time and we step on it and he sits when someone comes in and reinforce it with "off".  He is getting idea but is such an energetic puppy that his exhuberance gets the better of him.

9/4/10 - Today we finally got all 3 Boxers out in the back yard together.  They all got along just fine with no growling or fighting.  Of course Kasey wants to play non-stop and my 2 seven yr olds poop out real fast and want to go back into the house!  The second time I put them all out I had to force Kaiser to go out with Kasey.  Kasey seems to prefer my other foster boy, Rocco, who is a great big personable fellow.  He is the one who growled and lunged at Kasey across the baby gates, but in person, he was much more ready to run and play with him.  He was actually waiting at the door for me to let him out with Kasey. 
Later on this afternoon and again this evening, we brought Kasey into the family room with the other dogs.  At first he ran around and around checking things out, but quickly calmed down.  He tried and tried to entice my guys to continue to play, but eventually they just ignored him and laid down on their beds.  I brought another bed into the family room so he would have one of his own but he wanted no part of it. He loves the big bone shaped toy box full of doggie toys and is like a little kid at Christmas taking one out at a time, inspecting it, playing with it and then moving on to the next one.   He just can't help himself and kept trying to get my boys to play with him.  He has actually sat on Rocco's head a couple times today.  After a while I put him back down in the foster suite and will be try to extend his time with our boys more and more everyday. 

9/3/10 - I was worried about Kasey and the rain from the hurricane because he is your typical Boxer who does not like to go out in the rain and does not like to get his feet wet!!  But the weather here wasn't as bad as we had anticipated and we had sporatic bands of rain with lulls in between so I rushed him outside everytime it stopped raining.  I watched doppler radar and could tell when it was going to stop for a short time. 
When I got Kasey, his former foster mom mentioned that she thought that he might have been abused in the past as he is very scared of being crated.  She thought that he might have been taunted or abused while in a crate.  The other day my son was changing to put his swimming suit on and he pulled his belt off while Kasey was in the room and he cowered and ran away so I think it is safe to assume that he had been hit with a belt.  Today I printed something from the computer and when I took the paper out, it was curled up from all the dampness, so I rolled it up in the opposite direction and Kasey took one look at the rolled up paper and ran for his life, so my best guess if that he was probably smacked with a rolled up newspaper in the past.  We have been working to build up confidence in Kasey and I think he is really coming along.  But it is imperative to be calm around him and not yell at him or make sudden movements toward him.  He needs to build up his sense of security and not feel threatened.  This afternoon I sat in the office with him and he put his paws on my arm and I petted him and he gave me such nice little kisses.  He needs love an affection and a stable calm environment to flourish.

9/2/10 - Kasey is back to normal now and full of energy.  I gave him a red flashing hard rubber ball and he is in love with it.  He completely destroyed tennis balls and stuffed animals in just a few minutes so I had to find some other toys for him.  Now he has a hard bone, a kong, a rope toy and his red flashing ball and he plays non stop with them.  We have to take them away at night or we hear "thump,thump" downstairs!  Kasey met each of our dogs separately and it went pretty well.  Both of mine were more scared of Kasey than anything else.  Earlier I had said that he hadn't jumped over any baby gates - wrong - if he gets excited he can just jump right over them.  He did that this morning and all three dogs came face to face.  I made them go outside and they sniffed and sniffed.  Then they came inside and raced around and I made them go out again.  The next time they came back in, one of my boys got a little too mouthy, so I grabbed Kasey's leash a pulled him to the side and told my guys to go over to the other side of the room.  Luckily my boys listen very well and they complied with no problem and I took Kasey into the other room.  All he wants to do is play with my guys, but they still aren't too sure about him.  Kasey loves to run around the pool yard and is intrigued by the floating balls in the pool.  We had him outside with us tonight while we were putting things away in anticipation of the impending hurricane as we live on the shoreline in Southeastern CT and are slated to get some heavy rain and wind.  As we were moving furniture, Kasey lost his footing and fell into the pool!!  He knew exactly what to do and swam to the steps and walked right out.  He loves to run around the pool when the kids are swimming and they have been trying to coax him to go in, but to no avail.  Neither of my boys will go in the pool either.  In the morning when I go upstairs to get dressed and in the evening before going to bed, I take Kasey upstairs with me and he races around with a rope toy from one bedroom to another.  This morning, he crawled in bed with me and curled up beside me and gave me kisses.  He really is the sweetest little boy.  If I had the energy for a pup I would keep him myself, but he really needs a more active family.

8/24/10 - Poor little Kasey has a case of worms.  On Sunday night he got sick and, as coincidence would have it, so did my while family!  So we have had a couple of rough days with no one feeling well at all.  He is on panacur for 5 days and another course in another 3 weeks and he will be just fine.  I'm not sure whether his calm behavior has been because he isn't feeling 100% but he has been a gem lately.  He has gotten used to our routine and is adjusting very well.  He is still the energetic puppy and my two 7 yr old Boxers just aren't up to his constant playing.  They actually try to stay away from him as much as they can.  Kasey would really flourish in a home with another younger dog to run and play with in a nice chain link fenced in yard.  I am told by his former foster home that he can climb a stockade fence but he seems to be fine with our 5 ft. chain link.  Actually I have a lot of baby gates set up in the house keeping him away from my dogs and to let air to circulate and he has not tried to jump over them at all.  My 1 1/2 yr old grand daughter decided to learn to open up door handle yesterday and of course it was into a room where Kasey was and the two came face to face.  I was very impressed with him as he did not try to jump up on her at all.  They touched noses and he sniffed her, but was very calm.  A lot of Boxers have a sense about very little children and instinctively are careful around them.  However, when they are a little older and running around like wild they can be a little too energetic for one another and a young Boxer can knock the child down, so we are suggesting homes with children over 5 for Kasey.  He is a very loving little guy and we make him sit before giving him any attention and before giving him food or a treat and he has really gotten the hang of it.  Kasey really needs a more active family than the two senior citizens he is presently living with so if you want a sweet, loving, energetic boy to share your life, get your applications in for Kasey ASAP.

8/17/10 - Kasey has been here for 2 full days now and is acclimating very well.  Yesterday my husband took him outside on a leash and walked him all around our property.  We put our own Boxer out in the chain link fence yard and let them sniff one another through the fence.  After the initial jumping and barking, they settled down and walked along the fence line together side by side and looked like a dog waling in a a mirror.  Today we are going to try our other foster dog with him the same way.  Kasey slept very well all night long and only woke me this morning when he had to go out - what a good boy he is!!

8/15/10 - Kasey was moved to his new foster home yesterday, one that does not have and cats!  He is doing wonderfully here in CT.  He gets very excited when people first come in to the room and has to be taught to not jump up, but he quickly calms down and is a joy to be around.  He is presently staying in our foster suite as I have 2 other male Boxers who are not so sure about our new guest yet.  We will slowly introduce them over the next week.  He wants to play with them so badly but my other foster dog is giving him a hard time probably because is not very secure yet, so we will take it easy.  Kasey is a skinny little guy who I'm sure we will put a few pounds on very quickly as we seem to do with all of our foster dogs.  He loves to play in the yard with his jolly ball.  He has not had even one accident in the house which is very unusual for a foster dog, so he is completely house trained.  At night we are keeping him in my husbands office on a leash which is hooked to the leg of his desk.  He has the freedom to lay on a nice soft doggie bed and his water bowl.  We tried a crate the first night, but were told that he doesn't like one, and his former foster home was right.  They think he might have been abused in a crate and is scared to death to be put in one.  He barks and tried to nip you as you try to put him in so we gave up with that idea and leashed him up instead and he has been great sleeping through the night.  I get up early and let him out and feed him and play with him and let him out in the yard again after his breakfast and then leash him back up and then I can go back to bed for a couple more hours unless I am babysitting my grand children.  He just loves my 11 yr old grandson who is old enough to play with him.  The other two are only 1 1/2 and 3 1/2 and I have not introduced them to him yet.  Hopefully he will be the kind of Boxer who senses and knows that he should not jump up on kids and we will test him out later on this week once he acclimcates a little more.  As you can tell, I believe in taking things slowly which has always paid off for me with my many fosters.  If you don't have any cats and want a young energetic boy to share your life with, give Kasey a look.  More updates to follow.

8/9/10 - Well I don't know what has come over Kasey, maybe he is maturing, but over the last week he has really made a turn around. He still chases the cats so he can't stay, but he has figured out that pleasing people gets him everything in life he wants.  He has found a jolly ball and LOVES it, can play with it for hours all by himself. This is a big step because he has a hard time doing ANYTHING by himself. He is also showing some real progress with his manners. He knows that there is no hugs or petting until  he sits pretty. He has a really hard time with it and his butt pops up in about 3 seconds, but if you keep reminding him, he tries again. This is a HUGE improvement. He used to not care about pleasing and suddenly he haas figured out that pleasing people gets him lots more than the occassional treats. He has also figured out that when we are dealing with kid stuff like tubbies or dinner, he will hang back and not get right under our feet. Not only did the constant praise pay off, but he is very addicted to it...and this is a very good thing for Kasey and his behaviors.,We have been spoiled in the recent heatwave with central air, but last week it broke and the repairman can't get here till the end of the week. So we brought out all the fans and Kasey promptly plopped himself in front of one, rolling around like a little kitten!!! I tried to get a video, but he really either really likes or dislikes the camera because he tries to kiss you when you have it out until you can't see through the dog slobber.,His shoulder is all healed, his behaviors are getting better, his mannerisms are chilling out, so all that's left for this little guy is to find a home that doesn't have cats! I don't know what happened to Kasey in the last week, but whatever it was,it is nice and if you don't snatch him up, someone will as he is really becoming a great family dog.

6/27/10 - Well Hello everybody! I have been having a grand time. My shoulder seems to be healing and I figured out that if I listen to my foster Mom, my life is easy! I still can't leave those cats alone and the fence is easy to bounce over, but the rest is gooooood!  I get to sleep in the living room on my own bed and today, I napped with my foster girl...I don't know how but I ended up on top of her:) she was nice to cuddle with!!! I do wish I could stay, but they say no because I can't get along with the cats. I know that I will find my forever home and I know I can be a great member of the family. I need someone to spend time with me and teaching me what they want. All I need is some love, guidance, food and cuddles! Another dog would be great too since I am never far from my foster fur brother. If you think you might be the family that would make my dreams come true, call and find out if my personality is a match for your family. My foster Mom says we are having a birthday party for me because we think I am turning ONE! Wish me Happy Birthday, and send treats:)

6/5/10 - Despite that Kasey is battling with the shoulder, he is doing just fine. He forgets it still hurts and tries to play. Keeping him still has been hard so he has to spend a lot of time in the crate. He cannot resist a cat no matter what hurts.  Kasey needs a dominant dog to put him in his place. He is still so puppy. We think he is turning 1 this month so a birthday party is being planned!!! Would love to give him the present of a forever home this month!

5/23/10 - Hey...shSHHHH, Kasey here, I thought that since I was up I would tell everyone what I was up to! I have had another rough couple of weeks. I hurt myself and don't really know how and boy did it hurt, my shoulder was so tender that I couldn't even walk. My foster Mom took me to the doctor, and even though I didn't like him poking and prodding, he said I did well and that had I been a person, I would have cried even more. He gave me medicine and told me to rest...what's that???  My foster mom keeps saying, "please Kasey, just chill", but then something catches my eye and I am off-those meds work great! My Foster Mom says if I will chill she will cuddle and she does this thing she calls "Reiki". I don't know what it is, I all I know is she puts her hands where it hurts and it feels better. The little girl who lives here is my best bud too, she sits with my foster Mom and reads to me. I don't particuarly care for "Fancy Nancy" but my foster Mom says that's what 4 year olds like. I don't care as long as she is near me.,My foster family says I will need a family that likes to be active, and has the time to spend training me. I am smart and learn very quickly, but nobody ever taught me how to walk well on a leash or greet people when they ring my doorbell. ,I will give chase to anything that moves...a rmote control car, a zhu zhu pet or a vacuum, life is a big game for me and I want to LIVE it to the FULLEST! ,If you have the same philosophy and have some time to "smooth out my rough edges" as my foster dad says, then I have some time for you!! If you are even a little interested, call/email me to see if I would truly fit into your family.,Kasey

5/15/10 - Just wanted to let you know that Kasey is showing improvement today. Although he cried all night again, he is walking better today-even trotting a little. He would like to be more active, and the drugs aren't quite as slowing as I would prefer, but he is definitely better. He ate breakfast and is back to trying to get the cats so I think if we can keep him quiet this will heal.

5/14/10 - Yesterday we received a call stating that Kasey was limping and his foster mom thought it was his front paw.  She was able to touch it with no reaction.  We recommended ice or heat (whatever was tolerated), as well as a buffered aspirin.  If he was any worse or no better to call us this a.m.
Well, this a.m. she said it was up by the shoulder, and when she touched it she got a reaction.  As instructed, we had her go to the vet.  X-rays were done, and a fx or tear was noted.  The vet prescribed a muscle relaxant and pain meds, along with a 10 day rest period.  Prognosis is very good.  The vet feels that Kasey should be better after that time, and the fracture will heal by itself.  So anyone interested in dopting Kasey will have to wait until we are sure that he is healing as anticipated.