Miss Sadie Sunkel brings EE-ger an in-THU-zee-ASTIC to whole new heights, an Woof! Did I have fun innerviewin’ her an her FAM-ly! Sadie’s a beauty-full, Golden re-TREE-ver, with big, fluffy paws, about 70 pouns, an (at 1-anna-haff) still pretty much a pupper.
She bounced right up for the Wag-an-Sniff, an gave my assistant a buncha wags an bumps an liddle slurpy kisses.
“YAY! HI, MR. BONZO! It’s ME, SADIE! This is my Mom, Melanie, an my Dad, Phil, an my hooman sisters Emma, 8, an Everleigh, one-anna-haff like me. I also have two hooman brothers, Phillip, he’s 7, an Jake, he’s 12.”
“Great to meet you all,” I said, introducing my assistant, who, after obtaining per-MISH-un, produced a coupla duh-LISH-us snacks from The Satchel, asked Sadie to SIT, as instructed, then gently placed them in Sadie’s mouth, where they instantly vanished.
“Come’on, Mr. Bonzo!”
We followed Sadie to the screen porch, beside a green yard anna preddy lake, an got all settled; Sadie plopped down into a back-legs Sploot, an began happily chewin’ a sturdy little blue-an-green ball, while I opened my notebook.
“So, Miss Sadie, how’d you find your Furever Famly?”
“Well,” (she petooied the ball) “Mom an Dad were not ackshully lookin’ for a dog, but then, Gramma Suzie (her an Grampa Phil live onna FARM) told Mom she knew a breeder who had an Accidental Litter …”
“S’cuse me, a what?” I innerjected.
“I’m not ackshully sure. I think it means the breeder didn’t PLAN to have it. (Maybe the Mama an Daddy Pooch didn’t co-ordinate with the breeder, or somethin’ like that.) Anyway, us puppers arrived an, even though we were TRAY a-DOOR-ubble, we weren’t, you know, oh-FISH-ul. So Gramma Suzie told Mom, an Mom went to see us. (JUST to LOOK, she said. NOT to ackshully GET a pupper.) I mean, Mom-an-Dad had 4 kids already. An Everleigh was just a baby, like me.
Well, even tho my Puppy IN-stinks told me SHE was gonna be my Furever Mom, it took Mom a liddle longer. She came back every week for 4 weeks until, FINE-ully, she REE-lized what I Always Knew. An here I am!”
“Great Tail!” I told her. “So, what was it like at first? Any Pooch Pals? What’s your fave thing to do?”
“Well, bein’ a puppy an all, at first I did lotsa chewin,’ mostly everybody’s shoes. An the bottom of the kitchen table. An Mom an Dad hadda have the backyard somethin’ they call, umm, re-sodded, several times, cuzza all the holes I dug lookin’ for MOLES. An I use to eat ukky stuff outta the garbage can. But I learned what to do an what to NOT do preddy fast cuz I’m Very Smart! PLUS, I Don’t Like to Get In Trubble!
“Don’t get me wrong when I tell you this, Mr. Bonzo,” Sadie said with a Serious Expression. “I mean, I really love my Fellow Cree-churs, an all. Then there are The Squirrels: They’re All Over The Place an they TAUNT me. When I’m here on the screen porch an they’re on the Other Side OR when we’re all Outside. I chase ’em, cuz that’s what Re-TREE-vers do, right? But they’re So Fast. They make me TOTALLY NUTS, ya know? Mom an Dad have had to replace the screens a LOT, I think cuz I’m inside an Those Squirrels Are Right There, practically nose to nose, makin’ those Squirrel Noises …” Sadie was clearly a bit frazzled, so I changed the subject, an again asked about her Pooch Pals.
“I have lotsa pooch pals,” she happily replied. “I’m VERY SO-shull. There’s George, he’s a Pug; an then there’s Riggin, an English Lab. He’s BIG. I usta sit on him when I was a liddle pupper; an Cooper, an River, they’re also Labs; an Snickers, he’s a Chuh-Waa-Waa; an Duke, he’s chill. We all do leash walks.
“I think my Second Favrite thing is swimmin’ in Gramma an Grampa’s Pond. An all the BURDS! I love BURDS. Hawks, Woodpeckers, Eee-gulls, Sandhill Cranes; an Limpkins (Woof, Limpkins are LOUD. I call ‘em The Beak!).
“An my FIRST Favrite thing is CATCH! WATCH!!”
Sophia ran over to her Dad, who was standin’ in the grass, holdin’ the green-an-blue ball. He flung it across the lawn an Sadie flew after it like it was her JOB! After several Fetch-an-Return’s, Sadie came runnin’ back to the padio. She wasn’t even out of breath. It made me tired just watchin’.
“I could do that all day,” she declared. “I also love playin’ Fetch with my brothers an sister. Everleigh’s a liddle too liddle still, but not for long.”
“You’re Super Speedy!” I observed.
“I know!” she replied.
“Do you like to travel?”
“Oh, Woof, yes! I love the car! I’ve been to Cool Kibbles places like St. Augustine, which is by the same o-shun as here but farther up; an also, this Super Crispy Biscuits place called, ummm, Sanny-Bell. It’s an EYE-lin, right across from us, but onna different bunch of wader. An there’re So Many BURDS! Even PINK ones (which all have the same name. Rosy something). An also EEE-gulls.”
“Got any toys?”
“Sure. My favrite toy, I think, is my Duck. That’s it over there.” She pointed to a long sorta narrow, sorta munched-on stuffy that didn’t look like a duck to me. But when she brought it over, I did see the resemblance: It had a green duck head, an, as far as I could tell, no feet. It was clearly well-loved.
“I love bein’ all comfy an snugglin’ up with my Duck,” Sadie shared. “I guess I have sorta munched on it a bit. Oh, an SOMEtimes, me an my SIS-ters play dress-up: like, we wear headbands an Sunnies. An we usta have bandanas, but I don’t know where mine got to.”
Headin’ home, I thought about charmin’ and sweet – an funny – Miss Sadie, an all the ad-ven-churs she’s already had, an how many more ad-ven-churs she’ll have as she an her brothers and sisters grow up together.
