Sadie

by Aimee Amodio | More from this Blogger

28 Feb 2008 08:30 PM

It was a gorgeous sunny day yesterday, and I decided to take my dogs to the nearest dog park. We have a great dog park here in Wilsonville, Oregon -- it's a gigantic fenced in area, shielded from view by a line of trees (so the dogs aren't seeing cars/walkers/kids playing soccer/etc).

There were some great dogs at the park yesterday, too. Two puppies who tumbled all over each other playing. A dignified old Scottie dog who just watched the crazy kids running around. A boxer and a poodle mix who raced around chasing balls.

And Sadie.

Sadie caught my attention because she was walking strangely. Kind of limping, though that isn't the best word for it. She just had a different gait. Sadie and her owners were doing vigorous laps of the park, and I stopped to ask about her.

"Is she missing a paw?" From watching her walk and the times when she stopped to say hello to me, I could tell something was wrong with one of her front legs.

It turns out that she isn't missing a paw. Not exactly. Sadie is a purebred golden retriever, the runt of her litter, who was deemed unsellable because she is missing some bones from one front leg and paw. Instead of four toes, she has three. The affected leg is just a bit shorter than the other three, resulting in her gimp.

Her owners rescued her, rather than see her be put to sleep simply because she wouldn't make a profit for the breeder. The problem with "dog show science" (as Courtney called it in a recent article) is that dogs who don't fit the standard may be thought of as useless.

At two and a half years old, Sadie is smaller than the average golden. But she definitely has that golden retriever spunk, personality, and love of life. Her owners say she loves people and isn't afraid to play or walk laps or go swimming. Down the road they anticipate some surgery on her leg -- she may lose part or all of it.

But for now, she's just a happy, silly Sadie who doesn't have a clue that she isn't like the other dogs.

Learn more about Aimee Amodio

Aimee is a fiction writer... dog lover... music lover...

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