I love my dogs. I have three. Some days, when they all behave, I love them a lot. And some days, when they cause more trouble than an entire pre-school class combined, well… alright, they drive me crazy, but I still love them. Because as every dog mommy knows, life with a dog is an adventure. And life with three dogs AND two kids, is one crazy ride!
We’ve had so many funny moments with our dogs that I’ve decided to write a “Doggie Moments” series on this blog about our pups’ comical adventures.
This is the first in the series.
Our Adventures Welcoming a Pup Named Sadie
Welcome Home Sadie:
Our oldest dog, Sadie, was rescued ten years ago from the Brooklyn, New York dog pound. She was almost a year old, and had been abandoned. Found wandering the streets of Brooklyn, she was skinny and eating out of garbage cans. No one claimed her. So she was scheduled to be euthanized two days later. Just in the nick of time, a foster angel took one look at Sadie, and saved her. Who could say no to that face? A couple of days later, at an adoption fair, we couldn’t say no either. Excited to adopt our first dog, we met Sadie and fell in love. We welcomed her into our home a week later. And it’s been an adventure ever since.
Sadie is a crazy mix of a dog. About 60 lbs, she’s white, tan, brown, black, grey… yes, every color! With a head that in no visible way, matches her body. We think she is part coon-hound, and part who-knows-what. Boundless energy and endless love to give to everyone she sees, she is sometimes a bit overwhelming. “Everyone” includes our family, friends, the mailman, the UPS man, neighborhood kids, and pretty much every person that walks or drives by our house. Not to mention other dogs, cats, squirrels, birds… I can go on and on. She is amazingly friendly, but her endless energy can be tough.
I knew I was in trouble the second day we had her at home. She was being crate trained and after an hour alone in her crate, I came home to find an overflowing pile of stuffing. She had a wild party in her crate. Destroyed her new bed and a couple of stuffed toys.
So I let her out, and she immediately did about 30 crazy, barking, laps around my living room… up on the couch, over the tables, crashing into lamps. Knocking everything over. Her tail wagging the entire time. I was so freaked out, I stood up on a chair, wondering if this was normal. Was she going to attack me? She looked happy, but she also looked psychotic. She finally settled down and proceeded to lick my entire face. At that moment, I knew she wouldn’t hurt me. I realized Sadie was just really happy to have a home.
I kept wondering when she’d calm down. Looking back, I now realize that the answer was NEVER.
Our First Year With Sadie:
In many ways, her boundless energy was awesome for a young and active married couple like us. She loved hiking and never got tired. She hiked her first mountain in Lake Placid. And she wanted to climb right back up it the next day. She loved walks, and running around our yard. When she wasn’t outside, she sat looking out the window, waiting for her next adventure. Getting her to sit still long enough to take this Christmas photo of her, was a challenge. But she let us decorate her in lights and a hat, with not a single complaint! And this became our holiday card that year.
In other ways though, her boundless energy drove me crazy. She is very loud, needs to run constantly and has knocked me over more than once. And she gets into trouble constantly. One day I came home to find her stuck to the blinds. She must have been jumping up and down, while barking out the window, and got the string caught on her collar. When I found her, she was walking back and forth like this, opening and closing the blinds with each step! Yes, I made her wait to get free, while I got my camera! And yes I was laughing!
The Food Thief:
We discovered very quickly that first year, that Sadie is also a food thief. She will go to all lengths to steal food. She is a daily “counter surfer”. Apparently she thinks that anything I leave on the kitchen counter is fair game. She has stolen pretty much everything. Sticks of butter, cream cheese, entire loaves of bread, fruit, veggies, and she even steals drinks. She has perfected this skill – she stands up on the counter, bites the edge of the cup and carries it away. She then stands it up on the floor and licks out the contents! Milk, juice, tea, you name it! I am convinced that if we left her alone for long enough, she would figure out how to open the refrigerator!
She is also sneaky about it. If I leave a room that has food in it, she will follow me out. She waits and watches to make sure that I am truly going somewhere, then she quietly sneaks back in and grabs the food. No amount of discipline or training, has lessened her thieving ways! I think it probably has something to do with her being hungry when she was homeless. So I just try hard to remember to hide all food from her now. And I never leave her alone in the kitchen. I always worry about her eating something she shouldn’t. Because she has.
One New Year’s Eve at about 11:30pm, right before the ball dropped, Sadie started acting really strange and began throwing up. I went into the kitchen to discover that she had eaten 2 lbs, (yes 2 lbs!) of dark chocolate truffles. We scrambled around for an emergency vet that was actually open on New Year’s Eve, and had to take her to have her stomach pumped. It was very scary. Oh, and Happy New Year! That was a terrible night.
(Side note: Before you think I was careless with the chocolate, I would like to add that the chocolates were ON TOP of my refrigerator, in a sealed box. I told you she is sneaky, and will go to all lengths!)
Also, I was pregnant and those chocolate truffles were a gift that I had been savoring, one tiny bite at a time. My first concern was of course that Sadie would be okay. But once she was, my hormones kicked in and I really missed my chocolate!
That first year with Sadie did nothing to prepare us for all of her escapades to come. It just helped us realize there would be endless adventures with our Sadie!
Stay tuned for more Doggie Moments…