The Joy of Puppy Love

Last week while most of the country was battling record setting snow storms, we were falling in love with a rescue Lab named Sadie. She weighed eight pounds, crowning her the runt of the litter. She is the color of coffee with one pour of cream and has fur that is "soft as clouds" as our son Josh declares. Her eyes are a golden hue like the color of freshly harvested honey. She is the pup we have been praying would find us.

Sadie settling into her new home.

Sadie first arrived in my husband's inbox. For the past few months his brother had been sending him photos of puppies that were available for adoption. Some would pop in mine with a forwarded tag line that read "keep me strong". We would usually have a good chuckle and continue on with our day. But I started to notice I wasn't deleting these pictures as fast and I was looking at our schedule a bit more closely to see if a dog was realistically feasible.   I asked Anna if she would prefer a puppy or a full grown dog if we were to adopt. She said a puppy because she had only known full grown dogs. True, Mason was six and Dixon, one, when she was born. And I remember thinking "Oh dear, I'm not sure I can handle a puppy." And then we opened the photo of Sadie and I realized I was slowly making room in my heart for a new addition to our family.
Paul said Sadie was being fostered by a woman named Dianna who taught at the same school as his wife Lisa. She volunteered through MooreLabs, a Labrador Retriever rescue organization. So, Wednesday night we filled out an on-line application form and with great big butterflies in our stomach, hit the submit button. We guessed we would hear something by the weekend and agreed not to tell the children until we heard confirmation.
I awoke Thursday morning to a lawn covered in white and an application that had been approved to adopt Sadie sitting in my inbox. Shocked by both developments, I quickly found David and quietly informed him sweet Sadie was coming home. He appeared just as stunned.
Over breakfast we delivered the news to Anna and Josh. After the ear splitting screams subsided, we printed out a picture of Sadie to place on our refrigerator. And I tried to formulate a survival plan to get through three days of home bound children eagerly awaiting the arrival of our new puppy. Anna made a list of supplies we would need and on Friday we gathered the collar, leash, food, treats, toys and puppy clean up sanitizer. The night would be similar to Christmas, waiting and wondering what tomorrow would bring.
Thankfully, Grammy, Grandpa and Aunt Cathy were coming to watch Anna in her rec league basketball game. Our morning and afternoon was filled with silly games, lunch, and a brutal defeat followed by cheer-me-up cupcakes before we ventured toward finally meeting our little brown bundle of fur. We wondered if Sadie was ready to accept us.
With a small army of relatives, we arrived at Dianna's house at 4pm where our lives would be permanently altered by a tiny Chocolate Lab who needed a home. She padded happily around, greeting and licking everyone, completely unaffected by the impact she was having on our family. Without question, she was our furever dog.
Sadie has adjusted wonderfully to our home. She has already snuggled deep in our laps, our blankets and our hearts. She is playful, funny, smart, clumsy, fast, mischievous, hungry, and well, just plain puppylicious. She. Is. Joyful. And already it's hard to imagine our family life without Sadie padding around, making us laugh and raising our spirits. Sadie. Sweet Sadie. I think you rescued us.
For more information about the amazing MooreLab program, please visit http://www.moore-labs.com/.
And for a peek into Sadie's everyday life, stop by her Facebook page. She is always ready to greet a new friend. https://www.facebook.com/sadie.tingelstad?ref=tn_tnmn