When Breanna Sarver decided to get a puppy, she started searching online for a normal, happy golden retriever. It was love at first sight when she met Casey, and she learned that she was supposed to be her dog even though he was born with three legs.
Sarver drove two hours to pick up Casey and officially welcome her to her family shortly after seeing her picture. Sarver and Casey were inseparable from the moment they met and did everything together. Casey was just happy living her life with her mother and her best friend and she never showed any signs of knowing she was different.
“The best word anyone who knew her would use was ‘happy,’” Sarver told The Dodo. “She was always happy.” Happy to walk me to work every day, happy to meet everyone, happy to come home at the end of the day, happy to go to Petco and pick out her favorite toy. She was extremely devoted and loving. For almost a year she was my right hand; “I never went anywhere without her.”
Sarver and her boyfriend decided to welcome another three-legged dog, a shepherd mix named Harper, into their home, knowing how beautiful Casey was and wanting to help others like her. Harper had adjusted wonderfully to Casey and life was going swimmingly, until tragedy struck a month later.
Unfortunately, Casey died in a horrible accident shortly after Harper was adopted. Her mother had no idea how she was going to cope with such a catastrophe and her parents were devastated. Sarver called the woman from whom he had adopted Casey two days after her death to inform her of her tragic news. While the woman was equally upset, she had wonderful news: Casey’s brother, who was born with only three legs, was looking for a home.
“I never thought I would be able to accept another dog into the family for quite some time after Casey’s traumatic death,” Sarver said. “However, fate has a habit of doing the unthinkable.”
Sarver went to pick up Casey’s brother, Chance, and welcomed him into the family just four days after his death.
“It was one of the best decisions I could have made,” Sarver said. “He comforted me in a way he never could have imagined during my grief.”
Sarver was amazed at how much Chance resembled Casey in every way as he developed. Her personalities, features, smiles and little quirks were all the same. By adopting Chance, it was as if Casey had never left and was still alive every day through Chance.
“Sometimes I forget they’re not the same dog,” Sarver admitted. “It would be impossible for anyone else to understand when I say that, through Chance, I feel like his soul is still here with us.”
Chance assisted Sarver in processing her grief over Casey’s death, and before long, they welcomed yet another three-legged dog into their pack: a blind puppy named Oakley. When the couple adopted Oakley, they began referring to their dogs as the “tripawd squad.”
