Farewell, Sadie Girl

Yesterday, Adam and I made the tough decision to find Sadie another home.

We'd been discussing this on and off since we got her 10 months ago, so while it wasn't a decision that was "out of the blue," it was hard nonetheless. And I feel like a horrible person for giving up my puppydog. But we found her an amazing home with some people who don't live far away and said we could visit whenever we wanted because Adam told them how hard this was for us.

I'm sure you're wondering why we gave her up. Sadie had a lot of great qualities, and she was a really good dog. But.

We don't think she was as happy as she could've been. She is the type of dog that has a lot of energy and needed space to run and play. She needed more attention than we've been able to give her with our busy lives...needed to be taken on walks and cuddled with constantly.

In the past few weeks, she'd taken to digging through our trash and getting up on the counters and grabbing food while we were gone. It wasn't ALL her fault...she had too much excess energy that we couldn't help her expend. We started having to lock her and Diesel in our bedroom when we left. Then she started destroying my shoes and her bed. So then we started having to put her outside any time we left.

But that meant we had to put Diesel outside too, and Diesel is NOT an outside dog. I felt bad for him. He'd given up a lot after we got her. She was constantly challenging him for the dominant role, and since she was bigger, that would often turn to aggression and she would pin him to the ground. It's a miracle he never got really hurt.

We found ourselves being angry with her more often than we were happy or appreciative of her. We found that Sutton was picking up on that, and he would get frustrated and angry with her for being too close to him, or knocking him over, or trying to steal his food. That's not something we wanted Sutton to be learning.

I miss her already. It's so easy to think of all the bad things when she's under foot and going crazy. But now that she's gone, all I can remember are the good things, and I'm definitely feeling a huge loss right now.

Sadie was the best cuddler EVER. She was always by my side (which I often found annoying, but it was also pretty endearing), and always wanted to lay on my lap. Not an easy task for an 80 lb dog. Every morning when Adam would get out of bed, she'd immediately jump up there and snuggle under the covers right next to me. I'm going to miss that warm body.

Any time I was home alone, she was always my protector, always made me feel safe. I knew she'd scare off anyone or anything so I never had to worry...her bark was pretty loud and scary. But when it came down to it, she was a softie and became best friends with anyone who came over.

She had this way of nosing her way into the tiniest spaces that she shouldn't have fit in. I'd be stretched out on our loveseat, and she'd find a way to curl up in between my legs. Not always the most comfortable, but sweet regardless. She was the most loyal and loving dog I've ever had.

She had an exuberance for life that I couldn't understand. Her joy when we returned home from being gone for awhile was ridiculous. She also had this way of swinging her butt around while she was sitting next to us on the couch that was hilarious. She'd hoard all the tennis balls in the yard and not let anyone near them.

After I got the call from Adam yesterday afternoon saying he'd found her a home, I cried. Then I took her in the backyard for one more photo shoot as my way of saying goodbye. As you've seen, I got some photos of her with Diesel, with Sutton, and all alone.

We said goodbye last night, and Adam took her to her new home. She has a huge backyard to run around in, and the people were SO excited to be getting her. They said she'd be an inside dog (which is good because that's what she's used to) and that she'd get lots of attention. They'd been wanting a dog just like her for a long time but hadn't been able to afford one since purebred Dobermans can be expensive. Adam said she was totally at home running around their backyard, and went into their house without hesitation as he got in his car to leave. He explained all her quirks to them, so hopefully she'd be able to continue her life she'd become accustomed to seamlessly in her new home.

When we first got Sadie, she was timid and very calm. We're not 100% sure what happened to her in her life before she came to live with us, but we like to think we brought her out of her shell so she could let the real Sadie shine through. It seems like she'll be able to do that at her new home too.

Sutton gave her a hug and said "Bye bye Sadie."

Me and my girl, the best I could get with a squirmy puppy. We'll miss you Sadie girl, but we know you'll be so much happier in your new home!