With the recent press attention, many people have reached out to ask how the Callie Mae Sea Foundation got its name so we decided to make a post dedicated to the lore of the amazing Callie Mae! Callie Mae was a large mixed breed dog that I got as a puppy while in graduate school in Georgia. It had been a difficult year with an unexpected loss of someone in the field of marine biology I knew and also a less than ideal graduate school atmosphere, so I decided to get a puppy to bring some joy into my life. Little did I know, that malnourished sick puppy that I thought needed me would become my everything for many years.
Callie Mae moved with me from Georgia to Mississippi when I transferred graduate school programs, and she was there with me for all the late nights at the lab and at home. She even endured the Gulf Coast heat and liked to go out on the boat for weekend sampling days. I was half a country away from my family, so Callie became my family, and I quickly realized I needed her more than she ever needed me.
I will never forget the first time Callie Mae saw the ocean—we had just moved to Mississippi, and I took her to East Beach in Ocean Springs, a placed that holds so many special memories for me. Callie Mae immediately started leaping in the air in circles in excitement. Her reaction to the beach and ocean reminded me of the first time I saw the ocean and fell in love with it.
As years passed, Callie Mae enjoyed beaches throughout the country as our military family moved from Texas to Hawaii to Virginia, and her enthusiasm for the ocean never waned even in her old age. She remained my best friend as I transitioned out of graduate school, got married, had kids, and began my career. This past April at 12 years old Callie Mae lost her fight with her second form of cancer, but our hope is her name and her love for the marine realm will live on forever through the Callie Mae Sea Foundation.
