Sadie, San Jose, CA
Hello! It’s me, Sadie! I was born in the East Valley Animal Shelter of Los Angeles and that is never a good start, especially for a pit bull like me.
You see, my dog mom was a pregnant and whoever her “owner” was decided to surrender her to the shelter. She gave birth to me and another pup, a boy. The shelter is a scary place full of strangers; naturally, my dog mom was very protective of us. Because of that, the shelter decided to kill her.
We were only three weeks old when that happened. The shelter then sent us pups to two separate fosters that worked with the shelter, and that is the last record of my brother.
While I was with the foster, I got sick. Something called kennel cough. I was treated and then returned to the shelter for adoption at eight weeks old. I never made it to the adoption list as I immediately got kennel cough again and then demodex.
It didn’t look good for me. The shelter was going to kill me like they did my dog mom!! That is when Smashface Rescue swooped in and rescued me.
The rescue treated my kennel cough and my demodex. They had me for a couple of months and then they put me on for adoption at Petfinder. This is where something very amazing happened: my future moms saw my pictures.
Something in my picture spoke to them. Six months prior, their 12-year-old pit bull died from an auto-immune disease. They were devastated and Mom Dannie became depressed. It was not her first loss of companion animals but this one really struck her; she just couldn’t figure out how to be without her. Mommie Amy decided they needed to look for another dog so they went on Petfinder and saw me…
So they drove 9 hours to LA to go see me!
When they got there, they got to meet a four-month-old pup with no hair, a secondary staph infection and who was sticky and smelly. They watched me interact with the other dogs there and a cat and strangers, and they could see my great personality. I listened to other dogs very well and moms say they could tell I was a thinker. š
So they adopted stinky, hairless me!! To this day I still don’t have much hair but my life from that day on is wonderful!
I’m an AKC Star Puppy, I have my CGC, I’m a certified therapy dog and I’ve worked as a mobility assistance service dog since I was 19 months old! My moms do many things together and they are so happy to see me learn so many things.
One of my most favorite thing to do is hiking!! This was how my moms noticed something else about me.
Mom Dannie wrecked her knee when she was 19; 5 surgeries and over 30 years later she began having more stability issues and began falling more that she had been. She never realized a service dog could help her but she knew she needed to exercise. And with a young pup like me, that is what we did. We’d go hiking everywhere.
After about a year, I had learned to anticipate when Mom Dannie was going to slip because of her knee giving out. Somehow I noticed that just before Mom Dannie would slip, the sound of how she plants her foot would be different and I’d be ready to help her. I would place my body and brace myself so she can use me as a counterbalance. My moms couldn’t be prouder of me because I figured it all out myself!
Ongoing physical therapy involves lots of exercise so we hike 100 miles a month. I have hiked over 3,500 miles in my three years and it has helped Mom Dannie tremendously. Her orthopedic surgeon considers her and her knee a success story because she doesn’t even need pain meds anymore! Mom Dannie brags about how I made that possible for her. That’s why my moms call me the wonder pup.
I love people and I love dogs even more. I like cats (my “sisters” are two indoor cats and we are BFFs; we do lots of power napping. š ) and squirrels and deer. And I have so many friends. I have hiking dog friends in several cities. I love my friends and if I meet a dog that may not be very outgoing, by the end of the hike I’ll have that dog trusting me and hiking along beside me.
We are active members of groups such as SociaBull (a hiking group) and Dance-a-Bulls (a dog drill team) that promote positive experiences with pit bulls and other dogs. I see my Dance-a-Bull dog friends every week but my two BFFs are Reyna the Australian Shepherd and Mazie the Jack Russell Mix. We hike and play chase, tug and swim.
Oh and my moms like to tell people that I’m a boinger. I get happy and I boing! I can leap up so high I’ll be eyeball to eyeball with my moms! When I see my people friends, I will boing up in the air!
One my Facebook page, Sadie Wonder Pup. we try to show people the wonders of the natural world that you can discover while hiking so that people will be inspired to get out more with their dogs. Everyday in our lives we educate people about service dogs and pit bulls.
We live in San Jose, California, but we travel to the Monterey/Carmel/Salinas area every week for dog events and activities. As a service dog, I go everywhere my moms do so there is always opportunities for education as we interact with people in public. I’m a very good traveler and a pro in hotels and elevators.
I love the ocean and beach and I’m always happy and interested to see where we are going next. Come follow my adventure on Facebook!
~ Sadie
Parents: Dannie & Amy