Sadie in the City

Adler was our city dog. She lived there for 9 of her almost 11 years. She was used to the garbage on the ground, the loud noises, sirens and no backyard. Sadie on the other hand is and will be our suburban dog.

It's so different raising a puppy in the city than in the suburbs. Number one - you have a backyard so when the puppy has to go out in the early morning there's no need to put on anything else but your pajamas and wander into your backyard. Number two - the puppies are so used to loud noises in the city that they are seldom startled by the squeals of tires or the sirens of an ambulance. Number three - you don't have to go farther than your own backyard to walk them and they don't need to be on a leash to do it which means they get to run!

I forgot Adler used to have these spastic episodes in her younger years where she would just be so hyper running up and down our hallway and jumping over obstacles in her way. She would mess up our carpets, jump off our two steps and fly through the air. I was reminded of this recently when Sadie did the same thing in our house and I quickly took her outside where she proceeded to sprint around the yard like a mad puppy.

Anyway, last Friday, Sadie went with us to the city. It wasn't really a planned trip but we needed to head downtown for dentist appointments and she hadn't been feeling well the night before so I was reticent to leave her at home for what surely would have been at least four hours. So we decided to bring her with us and while the kids and one of us was having our teeth cleaned the other would walk around some of our old stomping grounds with Sadie and Hailey.

Sadie was so excited by her first trip to the city - all the smells, all the people, all the garbage on the ground that I certainly got a workout from having to restrain her often on our walk through Lincoln Park. Add trying to maneuver a stroller with Hailey in it while trying to restrain her and it was more of a challenge than I thought it would be. By the walk back maybe she was tired or she finally go it because she walked a lot better on leash.

I don't think she'll be a city dog - that was Adler's domain but she wasn't afraid of a little adventure in the city either.