For most dogs, the height of adventure is a brief spat with the mailman and the occasional table scrap of indeterminate edibility. No Air Bud-esque accolades of dunking on 7-year-olds or going to space. So they have to find their own fun like one pup did on the campus of San Joaquin Delta College.

Sadie, a 10-year old black lab, was seen roaming around campus on Sept.16 from early in the morning into the afternoon. Her tour of campus took her around the Shima and Danner, but ended up in the koi pond.

“Aly [Alyssa Suarez, another employee at the food pantry] and I were making our runs, we actually did see the dog earlier that morning, I wanna say maybe 3:39 in the morning,” said Valerie Valera, who works at the food pantry on the first floor of Shima. “The dog was actually in Shima with everyone and we were trying to direct the dog to campus PD.”

Sadie, now aware of her status as a fugitive from the long arm of the law, had other plans and instead went to lay down in the shade. 

“Once we hit the plaza the dog, kinda just like went underneath a tree and laid down,” said Valera. “We were just thinking she was resting, so we kinda just left her.” 

After lounging in the shade for a while, Sadie decided that it was getting a little too hot for her and decided to go to the nearest conveniently placed body of water to cool off — the koi pond.

“I’m not sure what time this happened but at some point Tuesday morning, folks walking by the pond spotted a black dog paddling around,” said Alex Breitler, Director of Marketing and Communications.

Security footage shows Sadie doggy-paddling away in the pond as the koi jet away, no doubt briefly understanding what it must be like to be the protagonist in a cosmic horror novel.

Sadie took two separate dives into the koi pond, but on her second dip in she began to struggle to get out. 

“She was trying to climb up on the bricks on the left, but she couldn’t bring her foot up,” said Valera, who noticed the dog in the pond on the way back from the bookstore. “And then someone said she was drowning and right then when I heard that I was like ‘I’m not gonna chance it.’” 

Valera leapt into the pond and proceeded to guide Sadie to an edge of the pond where she safely climbed out and was met with Delta Police.

“I got in trouble,” said Valera, who was told by campus police that jumping into the koi pond was a bad idea and that she could’ve gotten hurt

“But like, my first reaction was, I can’t see a dog in distress,” said Valera. “I grew up around animals, I raised animals, I fostered at least 20 before I started coming to Delta. So like animals hold a special place in my heart especially dogs and if I see any animal in distress and if I think I can help, I’ll try to,“

“So when the dog was coming to the left side of the pond, I saw that it dipped,” said Valera.

Sadie’s adventure was not finished when she was rescued from the pond however. Before she could be handed off to Delta Police, she bolted.

“The dog actually took off towards Budd after it got out of the water,” said Valera. 

Campus police were eventually able to track down the dog and get her to the pound.

But that begs the question, who let the dog out? Well, Sadie, according to her owner, let herself out.

“There was some kind of raccoon or skunk on the other side of the fences and she pushed the fence out,” said Brenda Mitchell, Sadie’s owner, who realized that Sadie was missing when she came to feed her on the night of the Sept. 14 and began following the trail she left.

Sadie’s trail led Mitchell to a University of the Pacific sorority which helped her in putting up missing posters for the dog, which were eventually seen by Alyssa Suarez during a tour of the UOP campus on Sept. 16. Suarez recognized Sadie at Delta and called the number.

“Alyssa thought Sadie looked like the dog from the koi pond, so she called, and sure enough it was the same dog. The owner picked her up from the shelter and they are apparently very happy to be reunited,” said Breitler 
After a long few days of adventure, a swim with the fishes and a brief stay in the clink, Sadie was now at home laying in her koi-less pool.

“She jumped right into her little pool,” said Mitchell. “I can’t thank the community enough, if it wasn’t for the students and their sightings I wouldn’t have had any idea of where to find her.”