When Alasdair and I visited Marla's library, we were lucky enough to find a copy of Maurice Sendak's In the Night Kitchen. We have borrowed it from the library a couple of times now, and because we love it so much, I got us a copy of our own. This is about the only book that we include the dedication page in our reading. It says, for Sadie and Philip. Our Sadie passed away a few months ago, and we still miss her. Reading this book is one of the ways that we still remember her, and not just because of the dedication page. When you start to think about things, Sadie was a lot like Mickey and Sadie would have thoroughly enjoyed Mickey's adventure in the night kitchen. She would have loved to have fallen out of bed into a kitchen. Well, Sadie would have made it look like she had fully intended to fall, but anyway. She would have been in heaven swimming about in cake batter and bread dough. She may not have been quite as tolerant of the bakers as Mickey is, but she probably would have just completely ignored their existence. A small price to pay for such fun. Sadie, despite barfing on Carol's floor on her first day with me, had a stomach of steel. She ate a whole chicken one time, not a bone was left behind. She ate a margarine container once, barfed it up, and ate it again, and then again. I was ready the last time, and put a stop to that cycle.
Sadie was up for adventure. She was independent, just like Mickey, and not afraid to explore new places. Leave the gate open and she'd be gone. In latter years there were a few times when I didn't even know she had run away, she was home before I noticed. Let her off the leash and blink your eyes and she was nowhere to be seen. I have no idea what she did as we hiked the Mantario Trail. She'd check in every 5, 10 or 15 minutes, and then be off again. Sometimes it was longer. Once she got herself stuck down in the foundation of a building that once existed on the trail, I guess it was lucky we came across her in our search. Another time Andrea, Leela and I waited and waited for her. We were 45 minutes into the trail and hadn't seen her since passing or being passed by some fellow hikers. Eventually I decided to head back to the parking lot to check for her. And wouldn't you know, there was Sadie waiting faithfully beside our car. Andrea, Leela and I spent every evening pulling tics off Sadie and squashing them with a rock, I don't know how many there were in total, but it was in the hundreds. Then there was the canoe trip with Sheila where we attempted to camp on the island on Lone Island Lake. Well the bugs were so bad, Sadie and I spent most of the time in the water to escape them. Sadie would get herself lying down under the water, but then she had nowhere to rest her head without her nose being under water, so she would get up and try again.Sadie had high expectations, at least of me. It's good to have someone hold you to high expectations. She expected two walks a day, rain, shine, or -40 below. But her expectations weren't as unshakeable as I would have thought at one time. I should have known since when others looked after her, she adjusted her expectations. I think Sheila once said Sadie had low expectations of her but I'm sure Sadie didn't think of it as low expectations. Perhaps sad that I was away, she would be glad that Sheila or Brad were willing to look after her and that she didn't have to go to a kennel.
Alasdair's birth was the most remarkable glimpse into a different side of Sadie. She was protective of Alasdair, rather than jealous as I had expected. Her expectations of me changed. She was ok with the occasional walk. As some of you may know, Sadie was terrified of thunder. She would shake and huff and puff. She would pee on my bed or on any other piece of furniture. We would put her in her kennel to keep the furniture safe. The summer after Alasdair was born Sadie would put herself in her kennel during a storm, and she was much less outwardly panicked. This only lasted the one summer, but what a huge help it was. I often said Sadie was all for what she could get, but that was not entirely true. In the book, Mickey says, "What's all the fuss? I'm Mickey the pilot! I get milk the Mickey way!" And Sadie too did things her own way. And we love her for it.
