We were asked to temp foster Sadie shortly after she arrived from Texas. It didn't take us long to fall in love with her....we knew by the time we arrived home, maybe before we made it on I-66. She talked to us the entire ride home. How did Sadie know that we had a soft spot for talking pups?

Sadie was definitely not one of the dogs we were thinking of adopting. After recently losing the second of our family dogs to cancer, we were not looking for a dog that had special medical needs.  Based on her x-rays it looks like Sadie had been hit by a vehicle when she was under a year old that left her with broken leg that is several inches shorter than the other hind leg and fractured her hips/pelvis. Every time we take her to a vet we've seen plenty in the past 6 months they are always amazed that she can walk, let alone run and jump like she does daily. We will have some challenges as we navigate an amputation sometime in the future but we are currently getting her stronger to make a quicker recovery.

All of us love her quirky personality. She might not be into cuddling on the couch with you, but she does love to lean into us and rest her head on our feet, legs, or the armrest in a car. She loves to go on walks, especially hiking the trails in Prince William Forest or Shenandoah National Park.

We are so grateful for Sadie coming into our lives. The four of us adore her.

Fran, Jen, Isabella, & Jonah

We adopted Sadie after we were asked to foster.

We fostered Sadie because she needed a home that didn’t have any dogs since she they thought she was dog aggressive after arriving on transport. We were looking to adopt a dog since we had just lost both of our long term dogs in the past year and desperately needed a 4-legged family member.

We had just fostered our first dog Daniella and she was so easy. There was a desperate need for Sadie to be moved because she appeared to be aggressive. She also had some medical issues since she has shattered pelvis/broken leg. I couldn’t say no, even though I wasn’t ready for having a dog that was more than likely going to be with us for a while.

When we picked her up from current temp foster. I was surprised that she was younger than the photos/videos appeared on line. When we started driving home, she talked to us the entire time. My husband and I love a taking dog, we loved her already.

Over the next few weeks, I took her on a few surgical consults because the thought was to amputate her broken right leg and do a hip replacement for the left leg. But one of the surgeons gave us encouraging news—no surgery was going to make her perfect. He encouraged us to get her active to use her leg—make her walk slow to force her to use the leg/hip.

What really sealed it for us, were people on Facebook who never met her giving their opinion of how best to treat her. My husband and I were like ‘no that’s not going to happen.’ People thought she had a lame leg, but she can and does use her shorter leg all the time.

She is not dog aggressive but can be reactive to certain dogs. We have worked with a trainer to correct both her and our behavior. We also socialize her by taking her out in public and get her around other dogs. I admit I’m still hesitant for her to greet other dogs on leash, but she has done well with the ones she has met. She LOVES people and to us that is most important. She also has welcomed foster dogs and puppies into her home. I choose to foster puppies because I’m afraid that other dogs can hurt her leg/hip when they play because she is quite physical.

We did have a setback about 4 months of having her at home with us where we thought we were going to have to amputate when she somehow reinjured her right leg. But through different pain meds and massage, she is still going strong on all 4 legs. We regularly take her hiking...not the steep terrain because it bothers her hips, but the nice wide horse trails that tend to be flatter.  Sadie walks between 3-5 miles daily, most days we don’t realize that her legs aren’t perfect.

Our family absolutely adores her. She doesn’t like to snuggle on the couch, but she does like to rest her head on your feet. She loves to go on car rides—especially if we are getting her a puppiccino from Starbucks.   Fran & Jen Tyson