Life with Sadie B

Sadie B is staying with me at the moment - a young border collie with all the intensity and focus for which her breed is renowned. Every day I am thankful that my Charley, whose mother was a border collie and whose father was a rough collie and the only dog I've ever raised from puppyhood to old age (she passed away in 2011), inherited the more laid back rough collie traits.  I might have sworn off dogs for good.

Sadie B's one passion in life is FETCH.  Every time I stand up in the house, she rushes to the back door, border collie crouch at the ready, expecting to go outside for yet another rousing game of  ball.  Walks don't cut it - though she walks very nicely and gets two a day - but even the longest walk has to end in a game of fetch or she simply won't settle.

I am lousy at throwing a ball.  Forced by my elementary school to play softball every lunch hour of my grade seven year,  I came to loath the game.  I was hopeless,  yet involuntarily was made captain of a team to the ridicule of my peers.  I have developed a hatred for anything requiring me to propel a round object from my hand across a field. Invariably, said object goes straight up, or backwards, or simply plops at my feet. Throwing a ball for Sadie in my small back yard invariably ends up with many trips to the neighbour's yard as the ball flops over the fence two feet behind me.

And so we have reached a compromise.  I can throw a stick with a fair bit of accuracy, and there is a very large ballpark at the top of my road.  So once or twice each day we walk up the hill and toss the stick a zillion times until her tongue is hanging out and my arm dangles weakly at my side.

Getting photos of her in action is as much of a challenge as throwing a spherical object.  She is SO fast that she has usually grabbed the stick and returned it to me before I have pressed the shutter button.  So I apologize in advance for these slightly out-of-focus shots:

I did ask Sadie to let me take a nice photo of her in my back yard one sunny afternoon.  She thought that was a strange request:

Ha ha ha!  Auntie Jean, you're so funny!
Just throw the ball!

Gawd this is boring!

So boring!

There, that's all yer gonna get!
Now play ball!