Sadie



Got your nose!

Sadie was my test kid.  I believe the decision to get a dog was very clearly a test to see if I could handle being responsible for another living animal.

If you can feed a dog every day - keep them clean, tend to their needs, get them to their doctor's appointments & even make sure they have fun, then you may be responsible and caring enough to handle a human child.  Fail in this mission, and... metaphorically, of course.

And so it was that we found ourselves going to the humane society, then SpokAnimal and finally Northwest Seed & Pet who had available one Jack Russell Terrier, and a Dachshund.  We went home that Saturday leaning toward the terrier because he was cute and that's the kind Frasier's dad had.  That night, as I was working the overnight shift and Kim was home by herself, we independently did enough research to determine we wanted the other one.  JRTs were to excitable, needed tons of exercise and were willing to jump to reach any cat lower than the top of the refrigerator.



Are those Sweet Potato Puffs?

Doxies, however, are love.  They love their people, especially their grown-ups - fine since we didn't have children yet.  Dachshund literally means badger hound, and boy do they love to burrow.  Sadie would go all the way under covers, down to the foot of the bed, even in the heat of summer.  Once in a while she'd come up for air, but even then it was usually just her nose breaching the surface like the periscope of a submarine.

About a week later, I forget if it was Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, after working another crazy overnight shift and coming home, crashing on the couch, I remember waking up to find Sadie in the crook of my elbow.  She had me in her paw from then forward, and I'm pretty sure that's when it was decided yeah, I could handle a kid.



Our first St. Patrick's Day Parade

Sadie was still with us when our children were born, even coming to not run from them on sight - eventually. She wandered, confused, at wiener dog races and marched in the st. Patrick's Day parade - both sponsored by the Dachshund Club.

At about 9 years old she started losing weight and not getting around very well.  Nine isn't old for a dachshund, but it's squarely middle-aged.  Eventually we had to say goodbye.  I may have succeeded in the pass/fail part of the exam, but Sadie was all A-pluses for us.