Wed April 20th, a year and two months after Alfred, I lost my second and last furry friend: Sadie. Just shy of 17-years-old, she was the sweetest dog you could ask for and made human and dog friends everywhere she went. Even when the dogs were barking at her and straining at their leash or gate she would wag her tail and calmly walk up to them and I’d have to steer her away from getting bitten by her new friend.
Though, all things being equal, I think in her internal hierarchy, people might have sat higher than most of her fellow canines.
One time I took her to my office and after settling in I took her leash off. She didn’t hesitate a second, she immediately started going from desk to desk on her own because she had to meet everyone. I watched her loop around the office (open floor plan), walking up to people’s desks and sitting till they gave her a scratch or pet and then she was on to the next.
After she made her first round I had offers stacked up to take her for walks. This process and the stacked offers repeated each time I brought her in. Everyone who ever met Sadie loved her.
Besides people and other dogs, laying in the sun on warm days, or sleeping with her nose by the air purifier if no sun was to be found, topped her list. Though walks, sitting on my lap while we watched the sunset, cuddling on cold nights and sleeping next to me any chance she got seemed pretty high up as well.
Her favorite treats were baby carrots, scrambled eggs and chicken and she always knew when I cooked with them she’d get her own plate and she’d wag her tail and watch me the whole time I was cooking, but she never whined. She was the calmest, most mellow dog you’ve ever met, though that’s not to say she didn’t have a fierce streak.
She vigilantly protected the cabin from stellar jays, crows, squirrels chipmunks and other small mountain animals (and one time a bear). When I rebuilt my decks last summer I built the lower rails to be Sadie height so she could effortlessly stick her head out between the lowest and second-lowest rail and safely keep an eye on the mountain animals and keep a lookout for her friends.
She patrolled the decks on warm days and the squirrels and birds would get the fiercest bark an old schnoodle could muster while her friends would get happy yips and the funniest semi-howl you’ve ever heard. Skimpy and Larry, Cosmo and Adam and Patty, Axel and his parents, Charlie and Vickie, and more all the time as she met friendly tourist dogs… and that’s just the Mountain.
Down the hill in LA she had Emily and Rick, Penny and the Naimans and the whole Westchester dog crew who are all 5x+ her size, but she acted right at home with them; the list gets even larger when you move to bi-pedal only.
The human list would take an hour to write and she always got so excited to see them – her tail going a mile a minute and making her hilarious happy noises (so many unique noises). Helen and dog cafe breakfasts, Dale and her Mama-Ewok nicknames, Michael, Rumi, Linda, and on and on. Though if I’m totally honest, her favorite of all time was Alfred.
I got Alfred from my best friend’s mom who had a pair of schnauzers who had puppies. After a month or so I felt like Alfred needed a friend while I was at work, I felt bad he was left at home alone, so I went to all of the local SLC animal shelters and put my name down for a young schnauzer-sized dog. A week or so later I received a call from a downtown shelter.
Someone had tied a pregnant schnauzer to their door and they asked if I wanted one of the puppies. Obviously, the answer was yes and 10 weeks later I got to see her for the first time.
I took a half-day at work so I could go and see the litter when the rescue’s adoption window opened. I was hoping to be the first, but when I got there another family had beat me and was already looking at them. Well… kinda. Really it was their 6-or-7-year-old daughter who was looking at them while the parents were 20 feet away looking at dog beds, leashes and all of that stuff.
I headed towards the puppy area and when I was about 3 steps away I heard a puppy yelping in pain. I moved quickly and saw the unattended child trying to pick a puppy up by the ears. The only sensible thing I could think to do was yell “what the fuck do you think you’re doing.” I scared the hell out of the child who immediately let the dog go and started crying.
This was the first puppy adoption I’d ever been to, but something told me this wasn’t typically how they went.
The poor scared puppy ran to the back corner of the puppy pen and looked terrified. I stepped in, picked the puppy up, carefully rubbed her ears and let her snuggle into the crook of my arm. Turning, I gave the approaching parents a death stare and said “if you’re going to leave your brat alone with puppies make sure she knows how to hold them. She was picking them up by their ears. What’s wrong with you?”
The last part was to no one in particular, but the family as a whole. I took that poor puppy to the adoption area, filled out the paperwork and left. I brought one of Alfred’s beds and had it seat belted into the passenger seat along with a new blanket I got specifically for the new dog.
Alkaline Trio’s album Crimson had recently come out, it was in my CD player and when I started the car the song Sadie came on. That’s how I got Sadie and how she got her name.
We went straight home and I was a little worried about how well Alfred and Sadie would get along, but it took all of one second to have those fears evaporate. From the second they met, Sadie and Alfred were inseparable. They sniffed and immediately started playing. They kept playing till they wore themselves out, cuddled up and fell asleep together in the middle of the floor.
They had a bond that kept them at each other’s side around the clock and when Alfred passed Sadie became depressed and developed anxiety she never had before. Over the last year, she also developed an acute liver issue she was on meds for, arthritis that began making it painful to walk and a rapidly progressing case of doggie dementia.
She had moved from SLC, UT to Monrovia, CA to Los Angeles and then to the San Bernardino mountains and we were planning another move in June. I thought she’d be making the next journey with me and we were training with her new, soft, Sherpa crate so she could fly in the cabin with me.
She was slowly getting used to being in it for longer periods of time and being carried in it. She seemed to be doing ok with it, but when she slept for two days straight – only waking when I picked her up to go potty – I knew I’d be going to NYC alone.
I scheduled the vet visit fearing the worst and that’s exactly what I got. The liver meds weren’t working well anymore, her hip was deteriorating quickly, her feet were arthritic, she was going blind and deaf and it was just… time. Everyone says their dogs are the best, but Sadie was something beyond “the best”, you had to experience her.
She was the happiest, most naturally well-mannered and loving dog I’ve ever met – truly all she wanted was to get love and give it back. She was a wonderful, easy, dog who needed very little to be happy.
For Sadie, the only way to make a day of ear scratches, walks and scambled eggs better would be to add a nap in the sun with Alfred. And that’s exactly where they reside in my memory. Napping together, in the sun, on a warm spring day.
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