Another goodbye...

It has been a tough week for us, as we had to say goodbye to a another faithful old friend this past Wednesday night.  I still can't quite believe that he is gone.

Sammy's passing was rather unexpected, and therefore that much more difficult to accept than Casper's.  Still, I take comfort in the fact that we were able to give him a secure, happy home for the entirety of his life.  We often remarked how lucky he was to have found us (imagine the life of a Doberman puppy raised in a less than nurturing environment), but we were really the lucky ones.  Without a doubt, he was the most loving, gentle, kind, vulnerable dog I had ever met.  All of this in the body of a giant, even for his breed.

Sammy was really Cory's dog.  In fact, I voted against keeping him after Cory found him, abandoned and scared in the Goodwill parking lot in Indianapolis.  I consented to letting him stay with us "for awhile", secretly plotting to find him another home once Cory realized that he would be a little too much to handle in a tiny apartment.  A few months later we moved to a duplex that had a yard and allowed large dogs.  So in some respects I was right, he did find another home.  Another one with us.  :)

Sammy was easy to please.  As long as he had plenty of nap time, a meal twice a day, his very own chair-and-a-half, and a tennis ball to play with outside, he was a happy dog.  He was Cory's right-hand man, chasing the ball for hours while he worked outside or grilled on the patio.  He would run for that ball until he literally dropped, and would chew it until it was shreds unless the neighbor dog managed to steal it in the meantime.

I was never scared here by myself with Sammy around.  Not that he would have actually attacked an intruder (in fact, he probably would have run the other way, LOL), but his stature and brawn would have been enough to give anyone with ill intent second thoughts.  The house seems empty now without his constant presence.  I know it will be like this for some time.

The only thing that makes the heartbreak of losing a dog worth it is the joy that they give you while they are alive.  I can't imagine the past nine-and-a-half years without Sammy around.  Goodbye, dear friend.  We will all miss you.