Sadie

Sadie – She does well with immediate family and close friends, not with strangers.  She does not do well with other dogs/animals.  She loves her brother, but it took weeks of slow introductions to get there.  Sadie is vey dominate.  She does do well with our cats.  Again, introduced very slowly as kittens and she is fine.  Sadie is a pretty picky eater.  Both dogs eat dry lamb and rice and a mix of homemade “Dog stew” which is rice and veggies.  Sadie is very fussy even with treats – she will politely take it from you and then drop it on the ground and smell it to see if it is worthy. Often, she decides it is not.    Sadie loves her squeaky toys and wrestling with her brother.   They play in our fenced in yard, games like tag and catch me if you can.  In cooler weather we take walks on our long dirt road.  We need to be careful because of her arthritis not to let her overdo it.  

Sadie is a fiercely protective dog.  She adores her people and will sometimes be a bit overprotective – she is not a fan of the Amazon prime guy!  The driver is so cautious he leaves packages in the middle of the driveway so as not to get near the house where Sadie watches from the fenced in yard, making it very clear this her territory! 

We adore these 2 big love bugs!  They are such opposites they balance each other out and make our family complete! 

Sadie changed our lives in big, earth-shaking ways. We were looking forward to fostering a dog, wary knowing loving and leaving could be hard. We were not prepared for the skinny, sad, soulful dog who arrived at in the middle of a dark spring night. Our hearts were simply not prepared to watch her grow, heal, blossom, because our hearts just melted and then expanded and she came into them and can't ever leave! As Sadie came into our home, we did experience wholly unexpected problems with our two current terriers. Milo and Sadie were okay together (till Milo passed last year), but Sadie and Josie, even after over a year of living together, never learned to fly the white surrender flag and forcing the rest of us to live in hostile territory. And, I won't lie, it was hard! As a dog owner, I'd never been faced with this problem; I'd grown up with multiple dogs, had multiple dogs before and never had a problem. Now - BIG PROBLEM. And NLBR was so fabulous as we tried to find the best solution. Our family learned so much from the dogs, and we are now much more dog savvy than before. We also experienced a little heart-break, as we worked with behaviorists and reached out to experts for help and came to the conclusion that one of them had to go (If it were just my husband and I we might have made it work, but not with 3 young kids). And we were all sort of stunned to realize it was Josie, the senior rattie, who needed to go. Our home had become too busy, too noisy and too full for her - her needs included being completely spoiled and being an only child "Queen Bee." Sometimes being a responsible pet owner includes heart-break. We had never, ever re-homed a dog before. Now, we have, with happy endings all around. A senior couple in our small town had lost their dog and desperately wanted another, but not a puppy. They needed a quiet, low maintenance dog to spoil. I still tear up when I think of Josie, but I know she is far happier in a quiet house where she is the only dog, where she is a spoiled couch potato who gets undivided attention and all the treats to herself. We still call frequently and are invited to stop by and visit anytime. When it thunders my daughter calls to check on Josie, because Josie hates thunderstorms. It is hard, because we love Josie, but we know Josie is happy. And that left Sadie, and we reached out to NLBR because I wanted Sadie to have a buddy - enter Moose! And this is just a really long story to say that wow! Now that we have Mo and Sadie, the change in our family is so amazing and we are so grateful! At first Sadie would tolerate Moose, then she began to kinda like him, even enjoy him... now? When you watch them together there is obvious true affection! Mo is part of family, part of the pack and Sadie adores him! The change in Sadie has been remarkable. Many of her anxiety issues are just gone - who has time for that when she is too busy wrestling, playing and sleeping with her new brother? I think one of the biggest things is treats - Sadie has always been very protective around her food with other dogs and though we still feed them separately and keep food dishes away from common areas, we can now offer treats together. And Sadie sits calmly and gets her treat and watches Mo get his and she is relaxed and happy and content. And Moose is just the happiest, silliest, most lovable dog we could ask for. He is all smooth where Sadie has sharp edges and together they just fit and make our house more fun, more peaceful, more protected... just MORE! Thank you to NLBR for helping find the right dogs, for working through problems with us patiently, and for giving us the support and confidence we needed to be successful. I tell anyone who will listen how awesome you all are! We have confident, happy, harmonious dogs and we are so thankful!

I am sitting here with tears in my eyes watching our dogs play.  Sadie, sad Sadie who did not really know how to play with other dogs, has now earned an A+ in play with Mo as her teacher.  I just brought a new toy home from the store, an early present from the Easter bunny.  Sadie has one end and Mo has the other and they are tugging their big boxer hearts out!  When Mo lets go, Sadie runs down the hall with it, but if he doesn’t follow, she trots back to the dining room and waves it in his face till he grabs it again and the tug-o-war continues!  This from the dog who used to guard her toys and not want to share… Maybe it is because we had dogs that did not get along before, or maybe it is just because Mo and Sadie are so darn sweet together, but literallyevery day we can’t help but appreciate them and feel so lucky that they found each other and that NLBR found them and sent them to us.  Thank you 

 Friday, May 10th is the one year anniversary of the day Sadie came into our lives.  We were so excited about our first foster as a family.  We had been expecting her but we did not expect her arrival at 2:00am.  Sadie had been on a transport for nearly 24 hours and arrived sick, skinny and sad.  She didn’t know or recognize her own name, she did not really seem to know how to give or receive affection and she seemed a little overwhelmed with our noisy, busy household.
And yet, with time and medicine and care and love, she blossomed.  We watched this anxious dog that was so malnourished and stressed become this dog that is the absolute light of our lives.  She has a sense of joy in her that I find amazing, given what she has been through.  Her capacity for forgiveness and love and happiness is incredible.  Sadie has taught us many things and as much as we have rescued her, she has rescued us right back.  We laugh more, walk more, cuddle more and smile more.  Thank you, NLBR, for bringing us together.  We’d like to make a donation in Sadie’s name and hope that many more boxers find their forever homes and many more families find their forever boxers.

Sadie is the best, sweetest, funniest, happiest dog!  She still needs to be on daily medicine for her colitis but when she’s on the meds, she is symptom free.  She has gained close to 8 pounds and looks healthy.  She has boundless energy – loves the kiddie pool, her doggie brother and sister and her kids.  Boy does she love her kids!  She still does not like to be left alone and will howl and whine but boy, when we come home she is so happy to see us!  The kids started back to school today and she will miss the 2 oldest but took a nap curled up with the 2-year-old to make up for it!  We are so grateful to have Sadie – she is very loved!!!

Sadie has been pretty sick but we have finally found the right medicine and she is starting to feel better.  So we are on the right road.  What a crazy dog though!  She is a complete Houdini!  I have a divider in the back of the car so the dogs can’t jump on the kids when they ride.  I walked the kids into school, was in the office for about 3 minutes, came back out, and Sadie was in the front seat.  The divider was still up.  How did she do that?  She doesn't like to be left at home.  I can hear her in her crate through the windows and it sounds so terrible!  She really does not like to be left alone at all.  Luckily, she hasn’t managed to escape from her crate!  All other gates have proved no match for her though because she either jumps over or knocks them down.  This weekend has been extremely rainy and we found out Sadie does not like rain.  Refused to go out.  Went out Saturday morning and then again on Saturday night.  My husband literally carried her out the front door and put her down in the grass so she would go.  She is so funny!!!  We were playing on the swing set last week when the sun was out and before you know it, Sadie followed my 2 year old right up the ladder and down the slide!  Maggie thought that was pretty cool!  Her quirky, funny personality is coming through as she feels better and I have to tell you, we are completely in love with her!  She acts like a big puppy

After being with us for 2 weeks, Sadie is feeling better and her personality is starting to show!  She is a bit of a wild child - maybe experiencing a puppyhood in a way she couldn't before.  She tries to grab things from the dishwasher as I load it and runs away with whatever she manages to get.  We are working on improving her manners but it is rather funny to see her scoot down the hall with a plastic tupperware dish, acting as if she scored a great prize! She loves to be wherever her people are and has become a bit of an escape artist.  She doesn't think gates were made for her and will either jump over them or knock them down.  She has even managed to open doors and let herself out into the yard!  She is very smart! Sadie is full of energy and enjoys her walks with the other dogs but she does try to stalk the chipmunks and squirrels in the yard.  She also loves to splash and bounce at the frogs in our pond.  She has found her voice and will bark at both the frogs and the ducks.  Maybe she wants to play with them!  We are working on walking without pulling on the leash.  Overall, she is just a happy, sweet, ball of goofy enthusiasm!

 Sadie is a sweet, affectionate girl with A LOT of enthusiasm for her kids!  She gets along well with our 2 terriers and my mom's 3 dogs.  She has a lot of energy but seems to like a good nap in the afternoon.  Then - she hears the school bus and wiggles right out of her skin because she knows it means the kids are coming home!
Sadie needs a home with no cats because she does tend to chase them.  She has been with us a little more than a week and has settled right in to the routine.  She loves to give kisses and hugs, go for walks and car rides and just be with her people.  She doesn't bark at all but when our other dogs bark she runs to the window as if to see what all the fuss is about.  She loves her toys, especially her Kong.  Her goofy personality is emerging as she starts to feel better - the other evening she curled up for a nap in my daughter's doll bed, even though she didn't quite fit!