R.I.P. Our Sweet Sadie Mae

Sadie joined our family in 2008, and the 6 years we had with her were absolutely too short... I still can't believe we have already had to say goodbye to our sweet girl...

Such a wonderful companion and friend - laid back, sweet, and she just loved her people.

Sadie LOVED having her ears rubbed - she would lean to that side and start scratching with her foot.

I always loved Sadie's big soulful eyes - she always showed her feelings through her eyes.

Sadie was the BEST momma dog you could ask for - with all of the foster puppies we had over the years, she always took great care of them, played with them, let them chew and climb on her and was a wonderful "teacher" for the puppies.

Max absolutely LOVED Sadie - he was always licking her and sticking close to her side.

When Lindsey Rose came along I wondered how Sadie would do with her - she was perfect. She let Lindsey smack her, pull on her ears, chew on her feet, put her hands in her mouth. She was always gentle and patient.

Sadie has had health issues for the past year plus - she was having pain in her hips and we started her on occasional pain medications, then injections, then pain meds, injections, and steroids. Then more steroids and more pain pills... Then the morning Kent, Lindsey, and I were set to fly to Washington to visit my family I noticed one of Sadie's front legs was swollen twice the size of her other leg and she had an open and oozing infection at the elbow joint on that leg. She could barely stand. We carried her to the car and Kent and I took her to the vet. She had lost 15 lbs in about 2 months and the vet was almost certain there was definitely something underlying going on - very likely cancer. We could have put her through more testing, bloodwork, medications, etc. but there was very little likelihood of her not being in pain throughout all of that, and no guarantees of course. We knew she'd been getting worse recently, and quickly too - her activity and appetite had both decreased, despite us increasing her pain medications and she just looked sad and tired much of the time... it was breaking my heart to see our big strong girl suffering. The infection was the last straw and I didn't want her to hurt anymore... I laid on the floor and held her in my arms and cried as we said goodbye. It was like she knew what was happening. She was so quiet, so dignified, and she gave Kent a little kiss on his hand and then she was gone.

Good bye gentle bear dog. You will forever and ever hold a piece of my heart. I loved you each day you were with us, and will love you each day you are gone.