BY LOUISE CHAMBERS | Epoch Times
A rescued dog has found an adorable way to thank her rescuer. Since being rescued from a mine site in West Virginia, she waits patiently on the driveway for him to come home from work and has done so every single day for two years.
Tim Fitzwater, a state mine inspector for West Virginia, who already had a Labrador and wiener dog at home, rescued skittish Sadie in 2021 after befriending her at a regular site.
“Sadie was just hanging around there,” Tim’s wife, Sara Fitzwater, told The Epoch Times. “She had been there for a while and was always pretty fond of him. … she would always smile at him. He had sent me pictures of her every time he would go up there.”
Tim put Sadie in his truck and drove her home, where she immediately curled up and slept for the best part of a week.
“She was skinny, you could tell she had been on her own for a while,” Sara said. “She was fine with the other dogs when she got here, she was just tired and hungry. … But she was very grateful, you could tell.”
The couple’s vet estimated that Sadie was around 1 year old when Tim brought her home. Sara suspects the sweet dog, a 70-pound [approx. 31-kilogram] possible Labrador or pit bull mix with “some hunting dog mixed in,” was abandoned at the mine site since she had no food and nowhere to sleep.
Sadie found her happy place in her new home. She also found a way to show gratitude to Tim, who usually leaves for work at six in the morning and returns around five in the evening. Sadie’s ritual begins in the mid-afternoon.
“I just started noticing her settling outside in the driveway,” said Sara, who often works from home as a case manager for a mental health agency. “She would just wait out there every day until he came home. I recorded it. I just thought it was cute.
“Other trucks and vehicles will go up the road and she doesn’t pay any attention to them, but when she sees his truck, she takes off running. She remembers that’s the vehicle that brought her home.”
When Tim returns from work, Sadie runs around the house with excitement. Tim loves Sadie right back and thinks it’s “pretty neat” that she remembers it was him who saved her.
“It’s like she was just meant to be here,” said Sara, adding that Sadie is protective over the family’s 11-year-old grumpy wiener dog—though he only “tolerates her”—and likes everyone, she just has always liked Tim more than the rest of them.
Two years on, Sara can barely believe that Sadie’s story has gone global, with millions of views on Instagram alone. Fans and followers compare Sadie to Hachikō, a Japanese Akita dog who waited for his owner at a train station every single day for nine years after his owner’s sudden death.
Sara says that Sadie “hit the jackpot” when she found Tim and hopes her loyal pup’s story will encourage other people to rescue animals.
“Go adopt an animal. Go to a shelter and adopt one there,” she said. “They’re amazing dogs. You don’t have to buy a dog to get an amazing dog, just like Sadie!”
