Sadie was a Good Girl!!!

Sadie will be three years old next month. We adopted her from the humane society when she was 8 weeks old. She is of uncertain parentage. The label on the cage door at the pound said "black lab puppy", but we discovered any black canine that comes into the pound is automatically labeled "lab". The only thing Sadie got from the Labrador breed is "black". She doesn't like water, she didn't fill out like a lab, and she doesn't like to venture off the trail into the woods unless Jeff and I go with her. She stays in her own yard, but sometimes sits right on the property line and watches the neighbors.

She has a few neurosis that we have learned to be patient with: loud noises, thunder, has to get a toy from her toy box anytime we say "want to go bye-bye" and she has a ferocious bark and is skittish around people she doesn't know. Once she warms up to you (in her own time) she will love you forever!

We were a little anxious Saturday evening. We had invited friends over to the house for dinner. Bett, their little girl who just turned four, was very excited about petting our horses. She is also scared of strange big dogs. We feared a bad experience on both sides because Sadie has grown up in the home of an adult couple with adult children and adult friends. This would be her first encounter with "little people" and we thought it might be an "omen" of things to come.

Before our company came, I had a little talk with Sadie. I told her "Friends are coming, please no barking and heaven forbid, no growling". We were in utter shock when Steve and Lisa got out of the car. Jeff had Sadie on a leash, but she whined and cried and practically drug him up to Steve and started licking his hand, like they had been friends forever. So it looked like "the talk" worked and Sadie is overcoming her fear of strangers.

Sadie was enamored by Bett. She wanted to play with her. We had to make her "sit, lay down and stay" until Bett got over her fear of the "big black doggie". She especially liked it when Bett was looking at a children's book and singing a little song. She cocked her head this way, then that way. Sadie followed her around all night long or laid under her feet when she was in a chair. It might have helped that Bett was continually giving her bites of a hot dog!

Bett is cute and kids say the darnedest things. When the horses "leisurely" (as horses do), walked up to the fence she said, "That horse is shaking!" I looked at Peanut and sure enough he was shaking... shaking away flies. I had a "face brush", perfect for little hands and Bett enjoyed brushing Skipper and Peanut. She liked Peanut better because "He's a little horse". I guess it is all in the eye's of the beholder. Peanut is shorter than Skipper, but probably outweighs him by a hundred pounds!

Later when we were getting ready for dinner, she heard Sami chirping in the bedroom, so we had to go in and take a look.

"I don't see a birdie," she said as she looked around the floor.

I scooped her up so she could see Sami sitting on top of the cage.

Next question, "How does he get out of the cage?"

"He crawls out of that opening in the top".

Her appraisal of the situation, "I think he needs to go back inside."

Had a fun evening and Sadie sat looking out the window for half an hour after they left, hoping her little friend would come back.