Sadie’s Story

After doing rescue for fifteen years I have become slightly jaded and more than a little bit disillusioned by my fellow man. Any person that has been doing rescue for any length of time will most likely tell you “the longer I do rescue the less I like people and the more I like animals”. Something has happened recently to restore my faith (at least a little) in the human race.

I was contacted in September to take a collie from Birmingham, Alabama. That is out of our area (we are located in Atlanta), but a very sweet young lady named Leslie was willing to drive Sadie to me if I would take her in. Collie Rescue was full; we are always full, but something about Leslie’s appeal and the description of Sadie had me saying yes. So, miracle number one happens in Sadie’s life—someone is willing to take the time and effort to bring a collie from a high kill animal control in Alabama all the way to Atlanta.

From the start it was clear that Sadie was exceptionally sweet and loving—far beyond what is normal even for a collie. It was also apparent that she had some trouble seeing well. She would bump into things—but only once. Her vet check revealed that she was mild heartworm positive, but that was easy to fix. Sadie was found to be spayed and so placed on our web site to await her loving and permanent home

Sadie’s second miracle came in the form of Amy. A friend of mine that devotes herself to grooming the dirty, matted, smelly collies that come in from animal controls. It took Amy three days to cut the huge baseball size mats off of Sadie, brush her, bathe her and restore her to some semblance of a collie. Sadie LOVED having all of this attention and affection lavished on her; it’s probably the first time anyone had cared for her in a long time. Amy also fostered Sadie for me twice while I was out of town and fell in love with her sweet and loving disposition. Amy reported that Sadie would bump into things once, but never twice. I knew that Sadie would have to have an eye exam before going to her new home. Before that could be scheduled, Sadie had the third miracle occur in her life. A family called interested in adopting Sadie. Their fourteen-year-old son had just tragically lost one of his closest friends and the help that only a collie can give was desperately needed. Greg and Seth came to visit Sadie and I must say it was love at first sight for boy and collie.

While the family was putting up a safe fence for Sadie I scheduled her eye exam. I promise you that my shock knew no limits when I was informed that Sadie is COMPLETELY BLIND! This is one smart girl—by nosing her way around, she commits her environment to memory and never makes the same mistake twice! As the vet explained to me, Sadie had become a pro at compensating and honing her other senses. Good for you Sadie!

Now for the big miracle in Sadie’s life -- As you can well imagine, adopting out a blind dog requires a very special family. God had already placed such a family in Sadie’s life. When I called the family to give them the unbelievable news that Sadie had no vision at all, they asked for time to pray about their decision. Their decision was that the Lord wanted them to take Sadie. If circumstances had worked differently and they had not already seen Sadie and fallen in love with her, chances are she would not have been adopted by this loving family. And folks, this is a match made in heaven! We have a boy that desperately needs a collie and a collie that desperately needs a boy!

So, through the hard work of many different people that cared about this dog, Sadie has gone from the gas chamber to a loved and cherished pet that will be a blessing to the family that adopted her.

Who says God does not work His miracles anymore? Not me.

For more information on adopting blind dogs, or if you have a blind dog and need assistance, please look at the http://www.blinddogs.com web site.

Connie Delinski

Collie Rescue of Metro Atlanta, Inc.