Dog Years

Fourteen years ago, Lauren and I had a litter of puppies to choose from: we chose the beautiful red pup with curly ears huddling in the corner, shy and uncertain.

{Top: Susanna and Sadie, 1999. Middle Left: Micah. Middle Right: Jonah}

{Top Right: Lauren, Susanna, Mikaela, and Melanie, sleeping under the stars with Sadie. Bottom Right: Jonah once again using Sadie as a pillow.}

And from that day when she joined our family of four girls as a rascally puppy who chewed through everything (including hoses, house siding, chickens, and trailer wiring) and taxed our impotent training efforts, she has grown with us and won us over long ago with her loyalty, love, and playfulness.

{Top: Mikaela, Lauren, Sadie, Susanna, Micah, Jonah, and Melanie.}

She insisted in following us around everywhere. When a toddling Jonah tried to escape down the driveway, we found him with Sadie by his side. We regularly biked to our neighbors to babysit, and Sadie would lope alongside of us, laying patiently at their house until it was time to head home. And when we went for a morning run a few weeks ago, assuming that we could sneak away without Sadie noticing (even though she had never missed a run before), we were once again astounded by her careful watchfulness over us. Despite her arthritis and hip displasia, and unbeknownst to us, she hobbled after us, until she fell in the road and could go no further.

Yesterday, we had to put our beloved dog to sleep. She rests now next to a creek on a grassy hill, which has been known as "Sadie's Hill" for the last decade because of her affinity for it.