Rex on the other hand thought dogs were the ideal pet. He filled my head with stories about "man's best friend". He assured me he could pick out a good dog. He assured me I would love having a dog.
I did want a pet. I wanted a pet badly. We had been married for a year and had just moved to Indianapolis. I was a little lonely with Rex being in med school. I wanted something to love. If Rex said it had to be a dog then I would give a dog a try.
We agreed that we wanted to get an animal from the pound. I liked the idea of "saving" an animal. So, we went to look. At first, no luck. I wanted a puppy but there were none to be found.
On our third visit, I found a beagle pup that I thought was precious. We took him to the play room to see how he was. He was adorable. I ooooed and ahhhed his cuteness. But the puppy didn't pay any attention to me. The puppy spent the entire time trying to eat Rex's shoes. As much as I liked that puppy, Rex convinced me that it was not the perfect one. "Let's check out this other one I saw" Rex had suggested. I knew the dog he meant. She was a yellow lab mix. I had looked at her too. She was cute but not puppy tiny adorable.
But we took this dog (I think her name was Sunny or Sunshine) to the play room. She seemed a bit timid but pleasant enough. Rex and I each sat down. The dog was between us. She looked at Rex. Then she looked over at me. The next thing I knew, the dog was lying on the floor with her belly up and her little feet up in the air. My heart melted right then. I reached down to pet her belly. The dog looked up at me. Her eyes were so expressive. It was almost as if she was talking to me. "Please pick me. Please pick me. I'll be a good dog."
"I like her" I said as I joined the dog on the floor. Rex bent down to pet her too. He liked her as well and was going on and on about her being submissive by showing us her belly, how that was a good thing and she wasn't chewing his shoe off. He went on and on about all of the good qualities this dog seemed to have. I was already sold. This was my dog. My first dog!
I filled out the paper work and we arranged to pick the dog back up in a few days. I think we had to wait a certain period of time to make sure we wouldn't change our minds or something. I was disappointed that we couldn't take her home that day. But, I did have doggy shopping to do. And we needed to pick a name too. Rex came up with the name Sadie. It wasn't my first choice but I liked it. I was pulling for the name Pooh because she reminded me of Pooh Bear. We compromised and she would become Sadie Pooh Stroud.
On June 30, 1999, I went to pick up our new dog while Rex was at school. I felt very excited and a little nervous too. (Remember, I knew nothing about dogs and was in charge of getting this four legged thing home.) I did manage to get Sadie in the car with me. She might have thought I was crazy at first but after a few tries she hopped in the car. I rolled the window down for her. Hadn't I seen on tv or somewhere that dogs love to hang their heads out of car windows?
We were off to PetSmart. I had noticed that people could bring their pets into this store. I thought that was a novel idea. And what better way for us to bond than a shopping trip? The shopping trip went fine. I bought her some snacks and chew toys and practiced walking her around on her leash. I was starting to think I could handle this dog thing after all.
The trip home was the first lesson Sadie and I had to learn. We were back in my little white, Dodge Shadow leaving the parking lot. Sadie had her head out smelling all the great smells of Indianapolis. I was waiting to pull out onto 86th street. It was a pretty busy intersection and I had to wait thru more than one stoplight. Finally, I was going to make it. I gunned it a little to ensure I made it through the yellow light. It happened so quickly I didn't know what to do. Half way through the intersection I noticed that my passenger was missing. I checked my rear view mirror and there was Sadie lying in the street.
"Oh no!" I thought, " I've only had her a few hours and I've killed her or at least injured her severely." I jumped out of my car leaving it in the middle of the intersection. (Completely blocking traffic and causing much honking to start). Sadie is lying in the road motionless. "Here Sadie" I call. I do this over and over. But....:hello.....I just got the dog, she doesn't know her name. When I get to her I grab her collar and pull but she's not moving. She seems okay just completely traumatized by all of the honking (not to mention the fact that she just fell out of a moving vehicle!). A nice man got out of his car and picked her up for me (she was a big puppy!) and carried her to my car. We drove away unharmed physically but mentally exhausted. I never rolled the window completely down for her again.
If I loved her the day I brought her home, I loved her even more the next day and the next. It became clear right away that she was MY dog. Oh, she liked Rex and would obey him but Sadie and I just clicked. She was my companion and I was hers. I couldn't believe that I hadn't wanted a dog. Who wouldn't want a dog? This dog thing was great!
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