I came, I saw, I conquered....

Recognize this quote? It was attributed to Julius Caesar, but this week it is an ode to our sweet dog Caesar, who suddenly passed away last Friday.

He was born in May of 1999 and came into our lives shortly afterward. I still remember a trembling puppy hiding underneath our deck. We had to send a five year old Joshua in to retrieve him! The two of them soon became inseparable!

Aren't they both so cute?!

In early 2004 he was joined by Romeo, who became his younger, more annoying brother, whom Caesar was forever tolerant of. Together they saw many sites camping and hiking, including the hike at Ft. Ebey, pictured below with Josh.

There were so cute together!

Speaking of tolerant, Caesar was soooo tolerant of the kids. Here are a couple of things they put him through over the years....

When Jaelyn joined our family in 2006, she was deathly frightened of the dogs, and would scream and cry anytime they got near. It was Caesar whom she first learned to feed, and he patiently allowed her to crawl over him and pull his fur without ever so much of a growl.  And Kaia, well she just adored him from the beginning, as you can tell by the photo below. Just as long as he was getting attention, he was a happy camper!

He conquered our hearts, and there were many tears with his passing. We will miss you Caesar*; thanks for bringing us nearly 12 years of smiles!


*footnote: although we will all miss him, the girls were paging through their "Dog bible" the following day, picking out the next breed of dog they will be getting. Border Collie,  really? I think not!