11.5.11

welcome

sadie
sadie
dad kate and i
me, dad, kate getting ready for a mississippi mardi gras parade...1994?
I've noticed that I have a few new followers lately and I just want to say hello to all of you! Since you're new to the Sadie blog, I thought I'd tell you a bit about myself. For those of you who've been following for a while, I'll try to think of something new to tell you.

Let's start with my company name, "Sadie Designs". Now, my name is Sarah (and I understand that's confusing and to that I say, "my bad") but the name "Sadie" has special meaning for me. In 2002 Jeff and I lived in Vancouver for a few months and we decided to get a cat. I remember the day that we found Sadie, a.k.a. Nera. We literally drove all over the Lower Mainland ALL DAY looking for the perfect cat. Now, when we found two Cornish Rexes in Maple Ridge I thought we'd found them, but Jeff did not love the hairless cat twins, so we kept looking. Finally, without any other SPCAs on our list (we were looking for just the right cat) we went to the Petcetera adoption centre (now closed) in Burnaby and found Sadie. A beautiful black and white cat that had been in a shelter for nine months (Vancouver has a no-kill policy, I think). She definitely chose us and we had her for the next eight years. Way too short, even when we knew we were adopting an adult cat. In late 2009 Sadie's heart stopped functioning correctly. She went from being herself one second, to being barely able to move the next. I am so thankful for a nap that Jeff, Sadie, and I all took together that afternoon while she was still well. Within 48 hours we had to have her put down. Now, I know that this is a sad story, but it is also a happy story, because we took this orphan cat (who, incidentally, could be a bit vicious sometimes and held a grudge) and gave her the best home she could've ever asked for for the rest of her life and that is what adopting animals is all about. Of course, I can only be so level headed now that this happened almost two years ago. At the time, I was a mess!

How about a brighter note for random info number two? This some of you might already know. My dad used to live in Mississippi and every Fourth of July he used to make us go to a party at the Mississippi Harley Davidson Cycle Barn or something like that. I'm sure it was a fun party for adults. There was copious amounts of beer and sometimes a pig roast, but for my sister and I it was a bit tough. If I remember correctly from the moment we arrived we were usually just waiting until my dad would finally agree to leave. However, let me share with you one Mississippi Fourth party tidbit. For real, one year they had a baby alligator at the party for the kids to play with! What's that, you say? A baby alligator, that can't be safe! Well, just duct tape its mouth shut and it'll be fine! That's what I learned that day. I also learned that if given the chance to play with a baby alligator and a bunch of sunburnt kids I would choose to not do so, as would my sister. You can't beat those Mississippi memories, though! On a related note, I was at a pig roast last year (despite the fact that I've been vegetarian for 17 years) and a little kid from the neighbourhood walked by and asked, "Mommy, why is there a man on the fire?" Of course, he was just seeing the pig, but talk about scarred for life.

Finally, just a little note about the present. Mississippi childhood and school behind me, I'm starting work on Monday and have yet to imagine how that's going to affect my life. In one sense, it'll be great, because I haven't had a real paycheque from a job in a long time. On the other hand, I'm a bit apprehensive about the loss of my grad student life of leisure. Don't get me wrong, I'm sooooo glad that school is actually, forever and ever, over, but I will miss sleeping in until 10AM and staying up until 2AM. Things just won't be able to work that way anymore. I am, however, looking forward to my new commute, which will be by bike, boat, and bike again (at least through the summer, not sure I can handle it in Vancouver's monsoon season).

You guys probably realize that I don't write this much usually, because I like to use photographs to give you more of the details, but if you've actually read this far, I thank you! And now you know a little more about me and I look forward to learning a bit more about you.

So here are my questions for you:

Do you have an adopted animal at home?
Or perhaps a wild childhood memory?

Please do tell me a little something about yourself in the comments if you have a chance. I really love getting to know my readers a bit better. Have an excellent day, everyone! What do you know? It's raining and gross here in Vancouver.

8 comments:

  1. What a beautiful and informative post! Sadie was a beauty of a cat, she's probably having a fabulous time in kitty heaven, all the catnip she can stand! :)

    To answer your question (I choose questions one because my childhood was not all that fabulously wild and exciting!) - I have 3 adopted cats in my humble abode! Benny (4 years old) who I saved from going to a kill shelter (stupid kill shelters!), Charlie (3 years old) who I adopted from AARK (adopt a rescued kitty), and lastly Penelope (approaching 1 year old!) and I adopted her from a shelter called Katz4Keeps all here in Jacksonville, FL! I volunteer at the humane society here and my boyfriend thanks his lucky stars that I don't come home with more fur babies! :) Sorry for such a long response...my fingers just kept hitting those keys!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I loved learning more about you in this post. And as a former New Orleans resident, I especially love Mardi Gras celebrations, even if you didn't love the pig roast as a kid. haha. I can't get the image of the duct-taped alligator out of my head--poor guy! Duct-taped AND harassed by a bunch of kids!

    I do not have a pet, but only because I work a million hours a day and would never be home to take care of it. I have two jobs and am often gone from 8 am to 9 pm or later, which rules out a dog. I definitely intend on having dogs one day! My family has three adopted doggies and one adopted cat, though, so by extension, those pets are my family, too. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think you are going to have the coolest way of getting to work ever! Seriously!!
    Anddd I agree, the baby alligator thing, I'm so not down with. Haha :)

    I have two dogs. Hunny, we've had since she was born because we owned her mom (who died two years ago also). The other, Jasper, we rescued last year from PetCo. He was a stray and the skinniest thing when we got him! And he had a bad cold. Now he's the chillest, lizard hunting dog on the block.

    Yay for pets!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I found your blog through the etsy blogging team, and that story about your cat touched my heart. We adopted a kitty, too--her name is Ms. Kitty--and she was kind of a mess when we got her (randomly aggressive at times) but she calmed down after a while and is now such a wonderful addition to our home. We are so happy we decided to adopt from a shelter, to give Ms. Kitty a happy place for the rest of her life.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I do have an adopted animal, Bubby the dog, who is also the inspiration behind my blog's name (Bubby and Bean)! And he, too, will soon have to be let go - at 15 years of age, 3 weeks ago, he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. It's incredibly heartbreaking, beyond words really. I'm so glad I came upon your blog (found you on Etsy Blog Team and am now following!), because reading about Sadie and how you're able to look back with fond memories brings me some comfort.

    xo,
    melissa

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi I found your blog through an ad on another blog (sorry, I can't remember which one!) I'm moving to Vancouver on Sunday, your blog's been a great introduction to the city. We haven't adopted a cat from a shelter, but I've wanted to on many occasions.

    ReplyDelete
  7. hey Sarah,

    sure hope the blogger conundrum didn't affect you too bad, i've been trying to simmer down since things went haywire and have used up all the alloted amounts of "goosefraba" for like a week!

    it helps to look at your darling fur baby and 1994 flashbacks though - so good!!!!

    a friend of mine used to breed cornish rex's, they are one of the most affectionate cats ever and i witnessed a few births, tears everywhere for sure. but can understand they're not everyones cup of tea. glad you found Sadie and she'd been so dear in your lives. this particular tale touches me especially b/c we lost our Koda kitteh almost a year ago now and he only was with us for a mere 19 months. i've written about it on the blog but what you said about giving them the best, most loving environment while they are with us is something that soothes the woes for me too. 8 years of loves for Sadie made up for any wrong-doing from her past i'm sure.

    oh my gosh, party tidbit is epic! i think i'd have run the other way ; ) massive congrats on the new gig, hope the transition period goes smoothly for you.

    as for the q's: our new little Mylo was adopted from friends of a friend, he's the best in the biz and we love him big bunches. as for the wild memory. that would be concerning my spider phobia. a neighborhood girl used to lock me in her dark & web infested basement and also chase me around with them dangling from the ends of sticks while flinging sparklers at my feet. torturous and mean is what. i still flinch at the site of sparklers. baha! ♥

    ReplyDelete
  8. What was the blogger conundrum? I've been away from blogs for the past week-ish.

    Sadie was adorable!! At least you had 8 good years with her, although it's never enough, I know. We lost Gus, our bengal, the love of my life, when he was only 3 or 4 years old, back when I was in college.

    Oh my god, I was killing myself over the baby alligator story. I mean, poor little guy, duck taped and all, but at the same time it's a pretty great, hilarious story!

    I was going to share a story but it's getting long so I thought I'd try to find a photo to accompany it & I'll share it on my blog :)

    xo.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for leaving a comment, I love hearing from my readers! I will do my best to respond to you in this comment area!