chocolate lab
Heartbroken
Losing Our Beloved Dog
Our Best Friend
Our Sadie
Losing Sadie
3/26/2018
Sadie Julia 2006-2018
The day we adopted Sadie was one of the happiest of our entire lives. Later that afternoon, I felt funny. I took a pregnancy test and discovered I was pregnant with Hudson. Best day ever.
My Dad always loved to spoil her with giant bones, 2006
Travis trained Sadie with a gentle, loving approach. He never yelled at her, shamed her, or made her feel afraid. He trained her with unconditional love and patience. This is the way to train a dog. I credit him for much of her gentleness and loving spirit. From day one, she knew she was cherished. 2006
| Cross country skiing was her absolute favorite activity, 2006 |
She loved to jump and run through deep snow. She would make this crazy snorting sound and we called her "Powder Pig".
When Hudson was born, Sadie became his constant companion. 2007
Playing in the snow with my babies, 2007
Hiking up the ski mountain after it's closed for a run or two...Sadie was always up for anything, and we included her in everything we did, 2007
 |
Rafting in Moab, Utah, 2009 |
Our river beauty, 2009 |
Hanging with my Mom, Arizona desert 2010 While we dote on 2 week old Viv, Sadie enjoys a celebratory roll in the grass, 2010 |
Watching over baby Viv, 2011
Pumpkin Patch, 2011 (The leash was a farm requirement. We almost never leashed her. She was so obedient, she didn't need a leash.)
 |
Cross country ski picnic, 2012  Sadie LOVED to pull Hud on his skis, and Hud thought it was the coolest, most fun thing ever. Later on, Sadie pulled Viv, too. 2012 |
Mountain Biking in Fruita CO, 2012
Hiking above Telluride, 2013
Sadie cheers on Hud as he surfs in a big one, Ventura, CA, 2014 (Seconds after this photo was taken, Sadie began to bite my sister's surfboard in her excitement. The only reason she was allowed to get away with this was Sarah's soft spot for Sadie. They were very close.)
Spring hike-to skiing, Ophir Pass, Telluride, 2015
Viv and her Sadie, 2016
Tubing the Dolores River, CO, 2016
In August 2016, we left Telluride to begin our traveling adventure. This was taken on our drive from CO to ME, somewhere in Kansas.
This girl loved to chase a tennis ball, and she was absolutely amazing at catching it on the bounce. (I will admit that I would show off with her if I knew people were watching.) Iowa, 2016
Ice cream in Maine, 2016
In the back of Marshmallow, 2016 Sadie ALWAYS wanted to be where ever we were or were going. Somehow the dog always thought we might leave her, maybe because she had been abandoned as a puppy. She jumped in the van while I was packing for a camping excursion. We used to sing the Fleetwood Mac song "Everywhere" whenever we were packing to go anywhere, because she would follow us at our heels until we were in the car. I am not a big fan of Fleetwood but the song fits, you can watch it here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LaOMLU8acM
Looking for fish in Moxie Pond, Maine, 2016
She loved a boat. Any boat. Moxie Pond, 2016
Canoeing with Viv, Three Mile Pond, Maine, 2016
Hiking Tuckerman's Ravine, New Hampshire, 2016
Crossing the Gulf Stream form Florida to the Bahamas, 2017
Making new friends, West End, Bahamas, 2017
Dead starfish munchin', Bahamas, 2016
Eleuthera, Bahamas, 2017
She LOVED fast dinghy rides. When her ears would fly up like this, Trav called her "The Flying Nun". Bahamas, 2017
At our surf beach, Encuentro, Dominican Republic, 2017
Early morning Hud snuggles, Cabarete, 2017
Dinghy riding with my sister Sarah, Samana, Dominican Republic, 2017
Puerto Rico, 2018
Celebrating her 12th birthday, Spanish Virgin Islands, 2018
By the time we hit the BVIs, we began noticing big changes in Sadie's energy levels and movement, 2018
This is our last photo of Sadie. March 23, 2018
Saying Goodbye to Sadie
by Vivian
The day my Mom
and Dad adopted our 3 month old chocolate lab, it was love at first sight. They saw her at the Humane Society Adopt-a-Thon in Ridgway, Colorado. She was wearing a little orange coat that said, "Adopt Me". They knew they wanted her. Since that day, Sadie has always been a happy-go-lucky
puppy.
Sadie has always been the most smartest
dog that you will ever see. One of the
times that she showed how smart she was is when I lost my shoe in a gushing
river. First she tried to swim for it,
but with no luck with that, she realized that she had to run on shore to get
ahead of it and then swim upstream to catch it.
And she brought me back my shoe.
Now you see how smart she is.
Sadie is a loving dog that will never make
anyone scream or yell, instead she makes them smile and be happy the whole rest
of the day.
But now I am sad that she cannot make
people laugh or smile because right now she is up in heaven. Sadie has had a rough last couple of
weeks. Sadie had cancer. Sadie had to be put to sleep because she was
in a lot of pain.
The last thing she experienced was sitting
on the floor with me and my mom at the vet’s office. I read her a story about the sea. At the end, I pointed to a picture in it and
she looked up and I knew that she was looking up and interested. The last thing she heard was, “We love you Sadie. Thank you for being our dog.”
From Hud:
Dear Sadie,
I’m so sorry
I was not with you during your last few hours. Your life flew by and I never
took a chance to notice. I miss your smile, your chocolatey fur, and your
loving heart. I am so glad that you were a part of my life and that you were
willing to share your love with my family and I. You gave us far more than we
gave you. That’s what my mom said and I agree. Sure we gave you a home but you
put a smile on our faces and that’s what matters most. If someone asked me “you have one wish and
what would you wish for?” without
hesitation I would simply ask for one more day with my dog. I understand that she is gone, I just want
one more day. If I had one more
day: I would buy her an ice cream, take
her for a walk, throw the ball to her, buy her a cheeseburger, but most of all
I would just love her with all my heart.
I have so many things to say about you, but all of them together would
be “I love you Sadie, you’re our dog”.
From Travis:
My Dad, who
is very inclined to share advice and his expertise on whatever the subject,
would often say of Sadie, “You better appreciate that dog, because there will
never be another dog as good as that one”.
And he was right. If I could
dream up a perfect dog I could not conjure one as good as Sadie. When Jen and I moved into our first home, one
of my first priorities was to get a family dog.
I figured raising a dog would be good practice for having children. Jen
was not from a dog family and was kind indifferent about getting a dog, so I
wanted to make sure that we picked a dog that would woo her. So,
nonchalantly, I asked her what type of dog she would like. My criteria was a larger dog that would not
eat children. Jen was a little more precise:
“I want one of those short haired dogs that are brown, a lab, but the definitely
the brown ones.” This was a bit of an
obstacle because we both agreed the puppy had to come from a shelter and not a
breeder. Most people when they want a
cute chocolate lab puppy call a breeder and hand them $2500. So Jen’s request for a chocolate lab seemed on
the more unlikely side. I, meanwhile start
combing the local shelters via the internet for free chocolate lab puppies (I might
as well have been searching for a free wallet full of cash). For seven months I
combed the internet and every shelter within 500 miles of us for lab puppies.
One morning
in May of 2006 Jen and I woke up uncharacteristically early (this was before
children). I mentioned there was an Adopt-a-thon occurring at the local Humane Society
and why don’t we go down, kick some tires, and get some breakfast at our
favorite breck spot. I know they would
never have a lab puppy, but I had been searching the internet for a long time
and was concerned that we would end up having children before we had a dog and
that just seemed out of sync. I figured if
we started looking at dogs in person then Jen might forget about the lab desire
and just fall for a needy, mangy but cute puppy.
For the
first time in my life I arrived at a planned event early. In fact, too early. They
asked us to come back in fifteen minutes when the event was to kick off. I immediately noticed Sadie wearing an orange
“adopt me” dog vest on our way back to our car.
I was so excited that they had a lab puppy that we circled the block twice
and returned five minuets later and just sat staring at the volunteers until
they relented and let us in to just look at the dogs.
I have
always wondered who the individual was that left that ridiculously cute and
well-tempered little puppy abandoned at a gas station. If I saw them today I would thank them for the
best dog a family could ever want for. Sadie
was loving, gentile but not timid, curious but not wandering, loyal, protective,
sweet, and I swear if could have taught her to hold a pencil she could have
trumped me on a SAT test. Training Sadie
went like this: “Hey Sadie don’t do or do this ….” And most times she would
just obey and sometimes she would do as she pleased and in those cases I would
then have to say just a little bit sternly “Now Sadie, I told you to ….” And that
was enough to immediately change her behavior, because she just wanted to
please and do the right thing.
She was one
of our own and she knew it. When she needed help or love, she would look to us. Like the time she came running and whimpering
to Jen in the laundry room on a summer day, covered in dog slobber, which we
assumed was the result of getting her butt kicked by the very large neighborhood
bully dog. She came to Jen for love and
reassurance because she knew she would get it.
If she ever got a thorn in her paw on a hike, she would just stop and
lift her paw in my direction. She knew I would understand what she needed. We always felt honored to care for her and
love her, and we were always the on the receiving end of the massive amount of
love she returned.
We generally
left Sadie free to roam at our house in Telluride and being the obedient dog she
was, she always stuck around, except for the time two hot air balloons floated over
our house. Seeing a giant floating orb in the sky was enough for Sadie run for
her life. She took off out of our
neighborhood and down the middle of the busy road. A guy in a jeep, afraid that the dog was
going to get hit by a car, stopped just long enough for Sadie to jump in. Sadie looked at the guy and with those beautiful
golden eyes said, “Did you see those massive things in the sky? Let’s get the
hell out of here!”
At some point during our travels, Sadie tested
positive from some tick-borne diseases. She remained strong and vibrant, and her
symptoms were few. Seven months ago, she began showing some confusing health
symptoms. The many vets we consulted attributed these symptoms to the tick
fever, which was incorrect. She had a small
tumor that we had been told, after many tests, was benign. When her health began to really decline, we
had the tumor biopsied. We learned she
had transitional cell carcinoma, which had progressed to an untreatable stage.
In the last
weeks of her life, Sadie continued to give us comfort and love. One day recently, Viv came into the cockpit
of Moxie, crying about something. Sadie, in the midst of her own discomfort and
illness, came over to Viv and put her head in her lap. Sadie was in pain, and it was hard for her to
move at that point, but she wanted to help Viv and she moved so that she could nurture
her. She was always, up until the very end, giving. Thank you, Sadie.
5 comments
Oh I am so sorry for your family. It’s so hard to have a pet die after being the best thing you ever shared. You had her for a long time and she’s like one of your children, but she’s without pain now and she thanks you for letting her go. God bless you as you comfort each other and remember so many wonderful times you had together. Love, Sylvia ❤️
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry about your loss....but if I'm right, the book Vivian is reading to her on her last day is one of Mimi Carpenter's....and that makes me smile.
ReplyDeleteOh Jenny, I'm so sorry. These pictures show a dog living the best dog life ever. She was so lucky to have your family.
ReplyDeleteI'm so sorry Jen. You sure got lucky with Sadie. It takes time, energy and love to raise a puppy into a constant caring companion, and they give back every day. I think the above comment nails it. She had the best dog life ever. You did bring her everywhere! Hugs to you all.
ReplyDeleteSo sorry to hear of Sadie's passing. We lost our pup Nicky a year before we moved onto Wisper. Celebrate the great life you had together!
ReplyDelete