It was Sadie’s luxurious coat and beautiful face that caught everyone’s attention. But beauty only gets you so far in life. For this young Shepherd mix, her striking good looks took her on a long journey before she arrived where she needed to be. One of our jobs is helping animals find lifelong homes. We are fairly successful at matchmaking and have a low return rate but sometimes things don’t go as planned. Before she reached her first birthday, Sadie’s story was already filled with many chapters.

Chapter 1- Came in as a stray; owner was notified but never came to get her.

Chapter 2- Adopted then housing situation changed and owner could no longer keep her.

Chapter 3-Owner gave her to family with a young child.

Chapter 4- Too excitable for a child; returned to shelter.

Chapter 5- Adopted but returned to shelter after adopter developed allergies.

Chapter 6-Adopted but returned to shelter after 4 days for “eating a chair”.

We humans have so much control over the lives of animals. In the animal sheltering world, we have the responsibility to choose for them where they will live and who they will live with. Even the most wonderful and loving home is right for one animal but not right for another. Most of the time, the animal cannot tell us what they need and want, but in some cases, they do!

When Steven and Kasia came to meet Sadie, something special happened. Their calm, kind demeanor was apparent, but there was something else that Sadie responded to; their way of communicating with her worked in a way we hadn’t seen before. She seemed to connect with them and was quickly engaging with their very sweet and well-mannered dog. This was her best chance and off she went to her 6th home. She was just over a year old!

We had to share this update we just received:

“Today marks a year since we adopted Sage, former Sadie, from you guys. Just wanted to let you know she is doing great, she grew even more, and finally became the dog we knew she would eventually be; very loving, loyal and happy.” – Best, Kasia and Sage.