The Last and Greatest Day of Sake's Mortal Life

The second a dog enters their home for the first time they are part of the family forever, even if it is for a short time.  For Sake, it was only a few hours.

I don’t know much about the first twelve years of Sake’s life, only that she was betrayed.  When she should have been home, living out her senior years in comfort, she was in a kill shelter in California having been abandoned by her family.

Sake knew something that none of the people caring for her realized.  Sake’s heartbeats were ending. She was due to pass to the Bridge with no family.  We would treat her like a queen because we knew she would never have that magical moment when she was reunited with her people.

Carol Overland, who lived two time zones away from Sake, in Red Wing Minnesota, saw the pup’s profile on the Internet and decided she would not let Sake spend the rest of her short in a kill shelter.  She would give Sake a home.

Momma Carol drove approximately 2,000 miles to get Sake, and the same amount to bring the very grateful dog home.  Sake smiled the entire way. She slowed down those expiring heartbeats because she did not want to die on the road.  She had to step into her forever home just once so she could be a family dog.

Sake made it.  She walked into the house and heard the spirits of the dogs who had preceded her cheering loudly as her new sister Sadie provided a welcoming lick.  Sake had tried hard to hide her illness during the trip, but she dropped the facade after reaching her destination. She began circling and leaning as she walked, and her legs were giving out.  Momma Carol realized something was very wrong.

Sake lost her appetite. She began to have trouble breathing.  Her temperature soared. Those last few heartbeats came at a high cost, but Sake did not mind.  Even as she was rushed out of the house for the final time, to go to the vet, where she would pass to the Bridge from distemper, she was happy because she was not passing alone.  She was passing with a family.

Momma Carol was there like she had been on all her dogs final days when Sake passed away.  As Sake reached Rainbow Bridge the ailments that had hampered her existence were swept away.  I have never seen a dog so happy to cross the Bridge. When she reached Hobo’s bluff, she hugged me.  “I made it,” she said with tears in her eyes.

“I am a family dog!  I am going to have parents to greet when they reach the Bridge.  They are going to let me live with them. I am saved! I am saved!” Sake barked then fell at my paws weeping tears of joy. 

When she stood, I had more good news for her.  Sake was now a Doggyspace member because once you become a Doggyspace’s Mom’s dog, you become a part of our group.  I introduced her to everyone in our neighborhood, and she had hundreds of friends within minutes. Now every door is open to her, and she can call them all home.

I don’t know if Momma Carol knew what she was doing when she drove halfway across the country to save a shelter dog.  She wasn’t saving a dog. She was saving an angel for eternity. Sake’s immortal life would be much different without Momma Carol’s sacrifice.  To us angels, who see dogs that were never rescued every day, and knowing they will never be reunited with a family, Momma Carol achieved the ultimate save.


And we all tip our tails to Momma Carol and Sake promises to be your most magnificent angel forever looking over you until that day when he is reunited with you, and all your loved ones will move to Happily Ever After.