Blatherskite

My mom’s dog, Sam died yesterday morning. It wasn’t a big surprise because he was really old for a big dog. 16 years old. We all knew this was coming soon. But still, it’s hard. He was a great dog and we are all going to miss him. In fact, he was my favorite dog. I loved him very much. When I went to visit he would always come to the door to greet me happily and the first thing I did when I stepped through the door was pet Sam. I looked forward to seeing him and I’m going to miss that.

He had a happy life and he had great dog parents. Mom and Doug loved him and took really good care of him and, in turn, he took good care of them. He was very loyal and he loved his family. Every night when everyone was tucked into bed he would make his rounds. He would check that everyone was in bed before he flopped down on the floor to go to sleep.

He was very playful, too, even in old age. He loved to go out in the back yard and play tug-of-war with the other dogs. It was hard to get the other dogs into it too much but he tried his hardest! He would throw the toy up in air and catch it and jump around and bark his funny old-dog bark.

He really missed Doug. When Doug was on his death bed Sam was at his feet the whole time. In fact, he was kind of underfoot and in the way so when the hospice nurse came to take care of him we had to put Sam outside. When Doug was “actively dying” and breathing his last breath Sam knew. He was outside barking his head off. And barking was not something he did lightly. He only barked when he meant it. When we let him back in the house later on the Hospice nurse noticed that Sam knew what was going on. She said, “He came in the house and looked at me like ‘what did you do to my daddy?’” He wasn’t really the same after he died, either. He moped around the house and he wasn’t the same happy dog that I knew before. He kind of turned into a crotchety old dog. Things seem a little bit tougher for him and he didn’t have that puppy-like spring in his step he had before. Mom said that he would sit outside, as if he were “waiting for Doug.”

There is comfort in knowing that they are together right now. But, still, I’m going to miss the old guy. He was a great dog.