Doggie friends and goodbye visits

Sammie has been blessed with several good doggie friends through her lifetime. As mentioned in an earlier post, there's "Uncle" Max, my mom's dog. There's also Eme, my dad and his wife's dog. And, of course, Pepper. Pepper was Sammie's puppy to raise and she did a great job at it. Pepper outgrew Sammie a long time ago and has been roughly twice her size for quite some time, but until very recently, Sammie was still the alpha dog outside while Pepper had taken over that role inside. It worked for them.

Dutch was one of Samantha's best buddies during my two years in grad school in Chapel Hill. She had other great canine buddies those two years too, including Biscayne, Brady and Buddy. Our apt was dog central - we dogsat constantly for other folks in the apt complex and they kept Sammie when I went off on job interviews. During those two years, Sammie even had a birthday party complete with homemade dog biscuits and party hats (plastic cowboy hats the dogs fought hard to get off) to celebrate her second birthday! The photos are priceless - trying to line up several dogs for a photo op...

To say Sammie was my first baby would be accurate. She and I even posed together in Santa hats for a Christmas photo one year that I sent out with my Christmas cards. Sammie and I spent lots of time together those two years. They were challenging ones for me in many ways and she was my loyal, loving companion, my source of unconditional love & humor every day. It was during those two years that I learned how high Sammie could jump. We were walking one day when she just decided to jump sideways onto a wall that was about 6-7 feet tall. She liked it and did it again and again and ...

In Texas, Sammie's best friends have been George, Selena, Sadie, Alex, Rocky & Rambo. Sammie and Pepper have gotten along with pretty much every dog they've ever met, except for Ebony, but none of the dogs on the block get along with Ebony. We call our backyard Switzerland since Sam & Pepper get along with Selena on one side and Alex on the other, but those two do not get along with each other.

Anyway, several of Sammie's dear canine buddies have already gone to Doggie Heaven - Eme, Dutch, George & Sadie that I know of. My grandmother that DD Munchkin is named after is there as well. Sammie will be well-greeted when she arrives, I'm sure.

Selena came over to say hi and probably goodbye this evening. I'll try to get Alex over to do the same tomorrow. It's looking like someday this week will be Sammie's last unless she starts eating again. I'll call the vet's office tomorrow and go from there.