28 Jun 2008
RIP Sadie
In May we found a Staffordshire bull terrier running on the road over the mountain, obviously dumped at the forestry, and desperately jumping at passing cars looking for her owners. When we stopped, she jumped into the car, and, unable to get her into the Pound, we brought her home.
She was stout and wheezy, though only about 6 years old. We called her Sadie because of her well-corseted, middle-aged appearance, and put her on a diet, which she did not think much of; I hammered her along the roads every morning, and she got lots of ball-chasing exercise, so she soon lost her porcine appearance and snuffle and began to look like the butch, sporty little dog she must have once have been. I felt very proud when I was out with her, although I must admit that Staffs are pretty ugly. And I noticed that other people flinched at the sight of her massive jaws as she grinned away happily at them.
Within days we had fallen completely in love with her. She was loving, placid and adorable in every way – except that she chased cats, showing a terrifying turn of speed. Normally friendly to other dogs, she could also get pretty feisty if one threatened her, and as she was built like a tank she was hard to hold if she went for it. We began to realise that we must think again about keeping her. We go away quite a lot, Carole couldn’t manage her, and most importantly, our cat was terrified, and we knew Sadie would get her in the end.
We had advertised her on websites for Lost and Found Pets, and told the Pound about her, but she had indeed been dumped. Her owners may not have been heartless; perhaps they hoped that Sadie would find a new owner. We learned that Dublin Corpo has banned Staffs from Corporation estates, and is about to pass a by-law banning them from public parks unless on a lead. A friend had offered to take her until he discovered this, but as he lives in a Dublin apartment, it would have been a poor life for her, never being able to chase a ball as she so loved to do.
The women at the Pound had told us that it is hard to rehome ‘restricted breeds’, but a woman had contacted them looking for a Staff bitch, so they told us to bring her in. I wanted to hand her directly to the prospective owner, but the Pound said that they had to assess her first. It was hard to part with her, and her little confused face, as she turned to see us leaving, will remain with us for a long time.
A few days later Fiona from the Pound rang to say that the woman who’d been interested might not take Sadie after all. She explained as kindly as she could that Sadie would be put down if no one took her, and said she’d ring the following day. Carole was at the airport, about to fly out for a fortnight away, and we talked about how we could make it work – building a run so she wouldn’t have to be chained up, exercising her on our land instead of public places, finding kennels for her when we went away. Carole, called to board, said she’d support whatever decision I made.
It was a hard night, and a hard decision. I looked at our cat purring on my lap, so much happier since Sadie left, and made up my mind. When Fiona rang next day I told her we could not manage Sadie, or give her the freedom and exercise she needed. She was very kind. I felt like Judas.
I am getting used now to not getting up at 6.30 to bring Sadie out, and only cry if I find one of her balls or catch sight of her bed in the shed. I am angry that we’ve bred these dogs to look so frightening and to do so much damage if they bite – they were bred for bull-baiting, to bring a bull down. I’m furious with the hard men who encourage them to be aggressive and terrify the neighbours, when they are really lovely family dogs. I can’t blame the Corpo for trying to protect their other tenants, but it seems, as Carole says, horribly like genocide.
Someone has just told me that the Corpo is relenting at the banishing of much loved family pets, which I am sure Sadie must have been, and is agreeing to let them stay if they are neutered and micro-chipped; this seems a more humane solution than an outright ban.
But it is too late for Sadie.
When I look at photos of her just after we found her and the night before we brought her to the Pound, I see a confused, uncertain, pathetically friendly dog who became confident and happy and part of a family once more. It was so hard to take her to the Pound thinking she was going to a better home, even harder not to rush over to bring her home when that didn’t happen. We will remember Sadie for a very long time.