It is with sad hearts that Mark and I have to bring this news to the group. Our Sam, sweetheart that he was, has gone to the Bridge.
Sam was showing symptoms of bloat this morning and after a mad, over the speed limit run, to Aldie vets for x-rays, he
was sent to the bridge with the entire vet staff with us. Dr. Curry had given him his monthly accupuncture treatments
yesterday and he knew she was going to give him his cheese, so he patiently waited for those pesky needles to be removed
so he could sweet-talk her into more than normal (which she gave into I must admit!) Both Dr. Curry and Dr. Hood were
with us and had as difficult a time with this as we did.
Sam gave us three and a half years of his pleasant company and lived for his carrots and car trips! Aunt Jeannie F. had kept him this last week while we were on vacation and he showed another side of his quirky personality by chasing her goats!! For those of you who knew him, you will understand this good old man that had nothing but a big heart for everyone he met (especially if you gave him treats!) He has kept many a foster dog in their place over the years and has given no ground for the pushy ones trying to steal our hearts away from him.
He will be greatly missed in this household and others as well.
Mark and Linda
Sam came to us from a shelter in March 2001. We had planed a morning drive to see Sam and a litter of
puppies, so we loaded up the car with donations for the shelter and off we went. When we arrived,
they hadn’t opened yet, but were feeding the dogs and allowed us to look around before we checked
out Sam and the puppies.
When we went around back, we noticed an older dog, lying down in the kennel quiet as could be with all the noise you could imagine at breakfast time at any rural shelter. He had dull, thin hair coated with dried red mud, no muscles in his hind quarters to speak of and wasn’t the best looking dog around. Never the less, we felt he had a great heart and seemed to have a good personality, so we filled out the paperwork, dropped off the donations and proceeded to pick Sam up and load him in the car. He couldn’t get in by himself and could barely stand, let alone run. It appeared he had been confined to a small area and never developed his muscles.
When we took him into the vet, they thought he was between 6 and 10, so we did a bit of work on him to
get him in presentable shape and tested him out on everyone we could find! He became the handsome dog
you now see in these pictures and a part of our family whether we were ready for him or not. Sam fit in
with our other 2 dobes and the fosters we had on a continuous basis with little effort. He attended all
the events we could get him to and generally played to the ladies sympathy for a treat (carrots are his
favorite). Sam had a couple of hopeful possibilities for a forever home, but they felt his age was
against him...so we decided he could stay with us in DAR&E Hospice Care and still be a great example of a rescue dog
Sam has been our constant shadow and protector since we brought him home and has indeed been the best example of and oldie but goodie. Sam is now suffering from Wobblers and has been on acupuncture treatments and supplements for a few months and seems to be handling this just like he does everything..with no effort. He still doesn’t like us out of his sight and loves to go for a car ride and deals with the constant stream of fosters. He has given us 3 great years of love and attention that others have been missing out on just because of his age.
Mark and Linda Smith