Sadie was actually David's dog. She was a gift to him on his 10th birthday. (He will be 12 on Sept. 14th). Our family had never owned a dog. We were always cat people. David begged us for a dog for years and years. My husband finally gave in when we moved to the farm. We always liked big dogs, and I don't like the idea of dogs in the house, so we never really had the space for one.
We looked online for several days searching for the perfect dog. I still remember the first time I saw our little Sadie. Her sweet face just jumped off the page at me. I knew she was the one. She was pictured with 2 other puppies. One looked just like her, and the other one was black. When we called the person with the ad she said, "One of the puppies has already been adopted, but there are still 2 left." I was sad because I was just sure that Sadie was the one the other family had taken. She was just so cute! Well, surprisingly to me, the black one was gone.
The lady on the phone explained to us that the 3 puppies had been found together abandoned on the side of the road. She told us the two puppies that were left were extremely close to each other, and would we consider taking both of them? She even offered to waive the adoption fee on the second puppy. My first thought was, "It has taken me 20 years to talk my husband into a dog. Now she wants us to take two? No way is he going to go for that!"
Well, after some discussion, John actually thought it was a good idea. He said that way they would have some company, and Steven could have a dog too. So we made arrangements to go meet the puppies. They were in a doggie foster care. They were in a pretty small pen in what almost seemed like an abandoned lot. There was a house on the property, but it was pretty far away. The dogs had an automatic feeder. (I had never heard of that for dogs). Basically, they received very little attention. They were VERY excited to see us!! However, Katy was quite scared. (She still to this day is very cautious of strangers).
So, each boy picked out his dog. I was amazed that for once they didn't fight over it! A few days later we brought them home. Since that day, those two dogs were completely inseparable. They did everything together. Their favorite thing to do was run to the pond to swim. They would come home completely filthy!! I think the thing I will miss most will be watching them run and play together every morning. They loved each other so much, and they would have so much fun! They were like twins. They looked almost the same except that Sadie had a short tail, and she was a bit smaller. They were definitely sisters from the same litter.
I don't want to go into too much detail about yesterday because it is just too painful to talk about. But we did go get Sadie's body so we could bury her. Katy had been hiding under the house all day. I'm not sure if she knew what had happened. She may just have known that Sadie was missing. She was clearly sad and not acting like herself. However, when we brought her over to see Sadie and say goodbye, it was truly the most heart wrenching thing I have ever witnessed. Katy actually started to cry. She knew in that moment that her best friend was gone. Words cannot express what that was like to watch.
After that we put her away. Then Steven, David and Jesse helped me bury her. Steven did the most touching thing. He suggested we take Sadie's collar and put it on Katy. (She wasn't wearing her collar when she got hit by the car.) We buried Katy's collar with Sadie. He said, "That way, they will still have a part of each other." What more can I say? I am blessed to have two amazing sons, and I was blessed to have a really great dog. Life is precious. Never take it for granted.
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