The End of an Era

On Sunday a sad event took place. Mom and Dad's faithful dog, Sammy Joe, was found dead in the yard. She was over 13 years old, deaf, going blind and generally old. Sammy was a purebred chocolate lab that was given to my parents by friends of ours kid. They were dog breeders, but Sammy's whole litter ended up getting some sort of disease that didn't clear up until they were 6 months old, too old to sell. No one wants to have over 13 puppies, so they were just giving them away to good homes. Mom was the one who "picked" Sammy out. Mom went to the breeders to pick one out and as she stepped on the front porch, she was swarmed by a whole pack of puppies. The first one to get to her knocked her down and ended up being the one she brought home.

Sammy was a fun puppy. Being older, she was able to do more w/ less of the awkward puppy stuff. Our dog, Chowey, wasn't really sure she liked having a puppy in the house esp one that wanted to play and not leave her alone. Eventually they became good buddies. Ben was surprised by Sammy. He was on his mission when we got her and no one thought to tell him about her, so when he came home he was shocked.

As w/ all dogs, Sammy did have "Marley" moments. The first Sunday we left her alone to go to church, we came home to discover she had trashed the living room. Since it was spring time, mom and dad had left potting soil (in their bags, of course) in the living room. Sammy fixed that. Thankfully, that was the last time she did that.

My favorite Sammy "Marley" moment involves Marsha and Larry Denzil. Since Sammy spent the majority of her first 6 months outside, she was a little slow understanding the whole housebreaking deal. Mom was sure after a while that Sammy had mastered this skill. Marsha and Larry Denzil were over and mom was bragging how she had finally housebroke Sammy. The most natural thing in the world, of course, was for Sammy to squat down and pee right in front of them. I thought (and still do) it was funny, but mom was so embarrassed. I can understand, having owned dogs of my own.

Don Petry loved Sammy Joe. He would always bring a treat for her, usually Mug root beer and would not bring anything for anyone else. Don would always try to get her to smoke cigarettes (she didn't), but during the time he smoked a pipe, she would knock people down to reach him in time to eat some.

Sammy was also a good dog for kids. When Marsha was in John Hopkins waiting for lil' Larry to be born, Savannah would stay w/ us while Larry Denzil was working. We actually trained Sammy to let Savannah to "ride" her like a pony. When she was tired and didn't want to deal w/ kids, she would walk to the door to the downstairs and wait to be let downstairs. Even when she got really old, she never snapped @ anyone, she just got up and moved away.

Sammy liked to go on walks w/ anyone who would go. The only time she didn't, Jacob decided to take her running. She was over 6 yrs old and starting to show her age. Jacob took her for a long run and in the middle of it, she had enough. She laid down in the middle of the road and refused to get up. Jacob was not thrilled that he had to almost carry her home. He got in trouble for "nearly killing Sammy".

Sammy will be missed. She was a good dog and died peacefully in her sleep.