Sadie’s Way

My whole life I’ve always made a conscious effort to avoid having close intimate relationships with people. The key phrase in what I just said is “With People”. I guess the good Lord refused to let this apply to man’s best friend. I met one of my closest friends, Elizabeth while attending college in Jamestown, North Carolina in 2011. We became close friends in 2013 and I eventually met her son and her dog, a pitbull name Sadie and I have picture of her that is worth a thousand words.

I’ll never forget the first time I met Sadie. I dressed up like Spider-Man for Liz’s son Caleb during his birthday that year and when I got to her house Sadie the pit was all over the place. I’ve always been used to dogs because I come from a family of dog owners. Not too many people in my family don’t have a dog. Still I can honestly say that I never met a dog as energetic as Sadie the Pit.

Due to all her barking and jumping when I first met her I really couldn’t tell if Sadie liked me or disliked me. She never sat still enough in that first year for me to really study her and get a good idea. That idea became clear within less than two years. By the fall of 2015 I had hit a rough patch with school and my financial aid and was struggling to get back in. Liz was also struggling to find someone to babysit Caleb as she started her new job. So I ended up being the babysitter for her until I could get back in school as well as get a new job myself.

Becoming a babysitter for Liz was the most interesting babysitting experience ever. Looking after the kid was only the tip of iceberg. On top of a son and a dog, Liz also had two pet cats named Benji and Nico and a pet snake named Jericho. So I was basically babysitting a zoo or zoo sitting as I would jokingly tell Elizabeth. What was even more interesting was the fact that as crazy energetic as Sadie was she was also the most well behaved out of all of Liz’s children.

It was also during this time that Sadie took an extreme liking to me. No matter where I went inside and outside of the house on Liz’s property, Sadie was always by my side. When I was sitting on the couch in the living room binge watching my favorite shows Sadie was sitting right there laying on my lap. If I was in the kitchen cooking Sadie would be sitting right next to me on the floor as I made food. Sadie would even wait outside of the bathroom for me while I took a shower. I thought it was a mix of both cute and funny at the same time. One day when I got out of the shower Sadie was laying right across the door waiting for me and I was so amused that I grabbed my phone and snapped a picture of her to post on my Facebook to showcase her undying love for me.

This photo is truly one of my favorite pictures I’ve ever taken. It shows not only how much Sadie loved me, but also how much I love Sadie for being an example of how much dogs are truly man’s best friend. Back in 2022 Sadie passed away and to this day I always go back and look at this photo because it not only represents someone I hold dear at heart, but a symbol of light when I was going through a dark time. I’ll always treasure the time I had with Sadie because because a picture is worth a thousand words, but you’ll never have enough words to describe Sadie’s way.