She was born on the New Year of 2002.

We picked her up one afternoon from a breeder in Hudson, NH.  That was over 13 years ago.  She whined the whole way, standing on her hind legs looking out the back window of the pickup.  She whined that night until I lay down next to her crate.

She was the runt of the litter, the last to be picked, but we didn’t care.  We sat with her in the kitchen, E on one side, me on the other; getting her to sit, stay, come, wait, off, down, play dead and roll over.  She loved getting that ball, and would run at Mach 1 to get it, not caring if there was a tree in her way.  She would pull me on a tube on the lake, swim with reckless abandon after a stick thrown off the dock.

Watching her do search patterns in the snow was something to behold.  If the snow was deep enough, we would throw the ball off the deck and she would race into the yard to find it.  Her tail sticking straight up and wagging, she would bound (not run, not trot or jump, but bound) around the yard sticking her snout in the snow here and there until she found it.  Once in a while she wouldn’t find the ball until spring…..

She has been such a good companion to us, a watchful friend to the children, and patient with them when they pulled her tail or tried to ride her when they were babies.  She even was patient when we adopted Stella Blue from a rescue in Georgia.  She’s been such a good mother to Stella.

She’s an ornery old bitch now.  Throw a ball and she looks at me and barks.  She limps and has an issue with her ACL.  She sleeps a lot.  The fasted she moves is when she hears “want to eat?”  Boy, does she get excited when she hears that!

I find myself lying on the floor with her like I did when she was a puppy, new in the house.  Early in the morning when I get home from the gym, I just lay on the floor with her and pet her as she’s waking up, wondering how much longer I have with her, and I dread the thought of it all.  Sometime when I’m lying there petting her, she seems lost, but then the fog clears and she’s smiles, like she has since we brought her home.

She still swims pretty strong, but tends to be slower after she does.  She thinks the mooring ball at the lake is something to fetch.

Not long now I think, but I hope there are more years to come with my Sadie Belle.  She’s my furry friend and I love her.