Sadie has come for a visit. We picked her up at a Ford Truck Dealership parking lot, across from the long term parking lot, outside of Chicago O'Hare's Airport from Andre who was flying with friends to Central America for a week's R&R. Sadie, a mixed breed Dog Pond dog with some interesting lineage including some attack dog strains, seems to be anything but an attack dog. She turns out to be a very relaxed and loving dog. She is obedient and goes into her cage at night or when we both leave for daytime excursions. She goes on long walks ( 2 miles and more) with enthusiasm. She has great energy and awareness of her surroundings, particularly with regard to squirrels. And she is very powerful. One has to anticipate her lunging and reign her in before an anticipated encounter. She is very bright, keeps tract of what is going on. Inside the house she sleeps on the couch when not in her cage, and she bounds down the stairs to leap onto the basement couch, turns to the TV and watches shows/college basketball with us. She will then sully up to us, putting her head upon our leg and wait for us to pet her, stroke her, and scratch her behind her ears.

She listens for us to come home. She waits in her cage for me to awaken and turn up the heat in the morning. After I have arisen and guide myself to her cage and unlock the door, she comes out, stretches, yawns and follows me to the bathroom as I perform my daily ablutions.

On our daily walk behind Bear Lake, she acts frightened as if there is a predator hiding in the woods; more so earlier in her tenure here and less so now. I wonder if she either is now familiar with the area, or that a fox or wolverine has decided to move on. Anyway, when we get to the InterUrban Pathway with its long stretches of fencing on both sides, we play pitch and catch with a ball until she is so exhausted, that she keeps the ball in her mouth and trots for the exit to head home. No more pitch and chase.

All this canine involvement comes to an end this weekend as we trundle off to Madison, Wisconsin to drop Sadie off at Andre's house as Andre greatly misses Sadie and wants her loving welcome home attitude to be restored. Mixed feelings on my part about this entanglement; as, with most social involvements, the good and bad outcomes are not clearly delineated.