Cassidy joined the family in February 1996 (a birthday present to myself).  Harrisburg had recently survived a blizzard and flood.  We went to the animal shelter on a Friday night, determined just to look.  You probably know what happened next...we saw Cassidy in his kennel, and just fell in love.  We put Audi and Cassidy together to make sure they'd be compatible, and they completely ignored each other.  We brought Cassidy home that night. 

In his new yard, Cassidy promptly marked every tree, bush, and vertical surface he could find.  When we first brought him into the house, I sat down on the kitchen floor so he wouldn't be so scared.  He promptly lifted his leg to mark my sneakers.  Unfortunately, I was wearing them at the time... As we tried out different names beginning with C, my husband found an Indian word meaning "shoots at trees" - Chasnona.  We thought it was very appropriate, but didn't sound very masculine.  We finally decided on Cassidy, because he had a habit of hopping along next to us when he got excited.

Because of his bad habit of lifting his leg, we decided to crate him when we weren't around.  He went crazy in the crate - maybe it reminded him of the shelter?  We also discovered he was terrified of thunderstorms.  We found that out when I crated him during a thunderstorm one weekday.  I went to work, and when I came home at lunch, he had nearly gotten out of the crate - he had grabbed the bars with his teeth, and had broken the weld and pulled the ends into the crate.  We left him uncrated after that, afraid he would hurt himself... he then proceeded to chew through two bi-fold doors, pull up carpeting, and generally destroy anything he could reach during thunderstorms.

In the fall of 2000, we noticed that he was having trouble getting his breath, and he had occasional problems with vomiting.  When we took him to the vet, they x-rayed his chest and found his chest cavity was full of tumors.  He started having seizures, and seemed uncomfortable, and wasn't eating.  We sent him to the Rainbow Bridge just before Thanksgiving, just about six weeks after the initial vet visit.

Edgar on the left and Cassidy on the right, on their "balcony" to the backyard, a bay window.