Old Dog, Always New Tricks

Sadie’s 20th birthday celebration and meditations on vitality, loss and relationships

Gusts of wind at 70 miles per hour couldn’t deter Sadie from celebrating her birthday with a proper stroll around a local park on Sunday, May 5. At the impressive age of 20, nothing seems to phase this 37-pound spaniel-lab mix who, according to owner Linda Ribblett Ryan, “just doesn’t care.” 

Despite a “little hip problem,” nearly 20 partygoers watched as Sadie frolicked to the park water and returned to her bed in a gazebo for a nap. The senior dog made sure to greet all guests, many longtime friends, with sniffs before taking her respite. 

Guests brought treats and cards to celebrate Sadie, who “embraces life itself” as Linda’s companion in her role as a traveling nurse the past 7 years. From patient visits on the Gold Coast to the world famous Waldorf Hotel in Astoria, Queens, Sadie has traveled 44 states and worked alongside Linda comforting patients with her “quiet and gentle” spirit. 

Linda offers Sadie a treat at her 20th birthday party at Old City Park on May 5th, 2024. 

“I have to stop her,” Linda commented on her vitality. “When her brother passed away, she only grieved for about two days, and then was like, ‘alright Mom, let’s go!’” Sadie still jumps from elevated surfaces and paces about when understimulated, an issue which began after the two life companions “upgraded” from their “Ta-home-a” — a Toyota Tacoma truck — to a sedentary house in Moab last year. 

“She motivates me and all our friends and patients,” Linda said. “I might not go as much without her, and we really bounce off each other.” 

Sadie’s encounters with friends inspire a surprising awareness of grief, and a renegotiation with assumptions about old age. 

“Every dog and everybody should have a purpose,” Linda said. “Sadie’s is sniffin’ around America and connecting with the old folks I work with.”  After visits with patients at Canyonlands Care Center, where Linda works, Sadie carries a posture of inspiration and often eats fuller meals. 

At Sadie’s party, Linda asked an old friend and US veteran from Phoenix when she would know Linda is ready to pass on. His response: “I just hope nobody puts me down just because I’m old.”

Linda chuckled while recounting an interaction with a veterinarian at one of Sadie’s checkups. 

“The guy said, ‘You here to put your dog down? Does she have dementia? She’s staring out the front door.’ and I said, ‘No… she just doesn’t like you.’”

“She’s really got it going on,” Linda said, which begs the question: how? Sadie’s vitality and sharpness may relate to life as a service animal with a dog-job. Linda noted her depressive moods when the two aren’t traveling and working together. 

“I think if she were to stop moving, she would pass on,” Linda said. Even at the age of 19, her determination to continue moving brought her to hike up trails in Ten Sleep, Wyoming, with Linda and her friends. Her partygoers could attest to this vitality as Sadie paced in circles around the park with a happy-go-lucky spirit.

Sadie reads her cards after her 20th birthday party on May 5th, 2024. 

Linda and Sadie’s dynamic complicates the conversation by offering a symbiotic possibility between human and animal guided by reciprocity; each party sharing some responsibility for the other. Linda involves Sadie in her work and travels, and Sadie lights a fuse under Linda, pushing the companions ever forward. 

Indeed, the two plan on moving away from Moab next month and hitting the road again for Wyoming friends. “We moved here so I could give her a stable roof over her head, but she just doesn’t care,” Linda said. “She wants to go.” 

You can follow Linda and Sadie’s return to fast-paced and flexible Ta-home-a life on Sadie’s instagram, @sweet_life_of_sadie_. 

Author: Nath Kapoor

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