[ SHOWGSD-L ] Sadie's Story (hope it works)
- From: SallyHH31@xxxxxxx
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- Date: Sun, 2 Apr 2006 21:43:48 EDT
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Sadie's Journey
Written by Laurie Sellars from notes supplied by my mom, Sally
Hathaway-Henson
On February 18 of this year I sold one of my puppies to Patrick, a hearing
impaired man who had found me through the GSD website. He had come out to my
house with his mom to look at my dogs and immediatly fell in love with
Sadie. She was 16 months old at the time. I explained that she only new how
life was in the country and she only knew me as her Mom, so it was very
important for him to keep her leashed and secure until she knew she had a
new owner and had bonded to him. All my dogs are crate trained and find
security in their crates. I told him if he had to leave her unattended she
should be in a crate for safety. His mother told him the same thing and said
they would take good care of her. Even though it was tough to see her leave
with a new family I was sure she would be in good hands as he seemed to love
Sadie already. We kept in touch through his mom and emails and they seemed
to be doing well.
On the 20th of March they called me to tell me that Sadie had been lost!
Patrick had taken her downtown and left her in the car with the windows
rolled down just enough that she got out. She had been gone for 3 days
already when they called me. She had been lost in the area of 15th and
Glisan in NW Portland, Oregon on St. Patrick's Day. I was devastated. He had
promised to leash or crate her to keep her safe and he had not done so. My
husband, Phill, had just passed away on the 16th, and this news about my
Sadie was almost to much for me to bear.
The next day my daughters, Laurie and Deeann, got busy posting on Craigs
List and PetFinder on the internet. We checked the Oregon Humane Society,
Multnomah County Animal Shelter, Clackamas County Animal Shelter and Dove
Lewis. There was a shepherd that had been found but it was not my Sadie.
Patricks mom put an ad in the Oregonian and I made up flyers. Patrick and
his friends put up the flyers all around the area she had been lost in, but
for 2 days we heard nothing.
Then I began getting phone calls from people in various parts of the city
who thought they had seen her. But no real solid leads as to where she might
be. I even went to look for her once with Patrick's mom in a place someone
said they saw her, but nothing.....it was like looking for a needle in a
haystack.
On the tenth day of this ordeal, I got a phone call from a doctor who said
he had seen Sadie sleeping with a homeless man for the past couple of
mornings. He said it was on the corner of 17th and Irving so I went to look
for her again, but no luck, and no dog. While we were down there I stopped
at a firehouse to give a flyer to the firemen and ask them to keep a look
out for her in the neighborhood. I was starting to lose hope we would find
her at all. I thought she must have been hit by a car or someone found her
and did not want to give her back.
The very next day the doctor called me back and said he had talked to the
man that Sadie had been sleeping by. The homeless man was kind but said he
could not take care of himself let alone a dog, so he was hoping her owner
could find her. Just a little while later one of the fireman called and said
they had tried to catch Sadie, but she pulled back and slipped out of her
choke chain. At least I knew she was still alive. My grandaughter Kathryn
and I got in the car and headed downtown at 10:00 am to where she had been
spotted. We stopped for a red light on 12th and Burnside and all of the
sudden Sadie went flying through the traffic. She darted through all the
cars and was heading south. Because of the one way streets downtown I could
not get turned around quickly. I finally got back to where we had seen her
but because of the 405 freeway traffic and the downtown noises she did not
hear me calling her. I just knew I had probably lost my chance to get her
back. My daughter Deeann happened to call then and I started crying telling
her about what had happened. She said not to cry, that she would come take
me back downtown tonight to look for Sadie and the man she was sleeping with
at night. I hoped that with the noise level not so loud she might be able to
hear me call.
That evening about 6 my two daughters Deeann and Laurie and my grandaughter
Kathryn and I left to go search once again.We got downtown about 6:30. I had
recieved a call right before we left from some people who had spotted her in
a small park in the same area. I was trying not to get my hopes up but was
excited at the same time.
We went to the park first. Kathryn and I got out and called for her while
Deeann and Laurie drove around a few of the blocks looking. I talked to some
people there but they had not seen her. We then drove to the place where she
had been seen sleeping with the man. We parked and all got out to go look.
Deeann and Kathryn went one way around the block and Laurie and I went the
other way. I started calling her name and a young lady about a half a block
away asked, "Are you looking for a lost dog?" We said yes, and she asked
what kind, and we said a German Shepherd. She said she had been following
her around the block. I was so happy but we still did not see her. As we
walked a man on his porch said he saw her go down around the corner. We went
around the corner and Kathryn yelled, "We got her." Sadie was so happy to
see us, she was laying down just crying that she finally had found someone
she knew. Then she jumped up and put her paws on my shoulders and gave me a
big wet doggy kiss. We were all crying. Even the girl who had been following
her. She said she wished she had a camera to take our picture she was so
happy for us. We gave her a big hug and told her thank you for helping. We
took Sadie back to the car and she jumped right in and slept her way home.
She slept alot the next day. I figured she must have been very tired from
her adventure downtown. The pads on her feet also had sores on them from
walking on the concrete sidewalks for 11 days. She was also very hungry.
I wanted to go personally thank the man that had been letting her stay with
him at night, the doctor had told me his name was Robertson. So Thursday we
headed down to see if we could find him where he slept in the doorway. We
could not find him though. On the way home Sadie threw up in the car. It was
just the most awful smelling stuff. In the vomit were these things that
looked like plastic, about the size of pinecones. I was worried when I saw
these and called Dr. Haveman, my vet, for an appointment to get her checked
out.
At the vets they weighed her. She had gone from 68 pounds to 56 pounds in 11
days! Dr. Haveman undid one of the plastic things and said it was a vinyl
glove. She had thrown up 3 of these!! He said there are some meat processing
plants in NW Portland and she had probably gone through their garbage
looking for something to eat. Yuck. He said to feed her frequently to keep
her gut working and gave her some medication for an upset tummy. He said she
was a lucky girl, but it is me who is the lucky one, I got my Sadie Lady
home. And she is here to stay.
Here is Sadie relaxing back at home.
I still can't believe she survived 11 days running scared in downtown
Portland, Oregon
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