Goodbye Sammy…..

This is a hard post to write. We had to say goodbye to our Sammy boy….

We actually won him at a young women/young men fund raising event at the church. One of the member’s maltipoo’s had a littler of puppies and they brought them to be bid on to help raise money for the youth’s activities for the upcoming year. Incredibly generous! This breed of dog is VERY expensive. Breeders get thousands of dollars for them.

We saw them outside in the parking lot in the back of their pickup truck. They were white little round puff balls! The kids fell in LOVE!!!!

They begged and begged and begged. I finally caved and said, Ok we’ll put $25 down as our bid. Not thinking we’d even have a chance in brining one of them home.

Little did I know until years later that Eli stood guard of the clip board and told people they couldn’t bid because he wanted to bring one home. Hahaha! How adorable is that???

What he didn’t know….most people don’t just show up to a church auction wanting to bring home a dog. LOL!!!!!!

So, at the end of the night we were the only one’s who bid on Sammy (he was yet to be named but we knew which one he was 😛 ) and I packed up the kids, the puppy, and had to make a phone call to Jared telling him what happened. To be honest I was nervous. Who just comes home with a dog without talking to their spouse first??? That’s definitely not me. I blame this all on the kids! Hahaha!

Sammy has been with us for almost 14 years. (His birthday is Aug. 8th.) He’s been there with the kids and our family through almost their entire childhoods. Potty-training, lost teeth, 1st day’s of school, sleepovers, camping, learning how to ride bikes, scraped knees, birthdays, Christmases, graduations, you name it!

Sammy was the most food driven dog too. He was always under my feet in the kitchen, tripping me, knowing I’d eventually drop some tasty morsel on the floor. 😛

He was a great napping buddy too!

In the last year and half his health started declining. In fact, we thought we were going to have to say goodbye then. Somehow he made a recovery and started doing a lot better. Still not back to his old self but he was eating and drinking again. He was sleeping more and slowing down. He had a heart murmur, dental disease, swollen lymph nodes, he couldn’t see or hear much anymore, his legs would give out on him and he’d get these episodes that looked like he was getting electric shocks and he’d jump up out of a dead sleep sometimes. We’re pretty confident he had dementia too. He’d stand in the room and just stare at the wall swaying back and forth. It was so sad.

Still, it was NOT an easy decision to make. He’d still play and have bursts of energy but we knew his quality of life wasn’t what it should be. He’s become such an integral part of our family and our daily lives. Knowing he wasn’t going to be with us anymore was hard on everyone. We took the weekend to spoil him rotten and give him every cuddle, treat, and belly rub we could. We said our goodbyes on Tuesday. The house feels empty without him.

We sure miss you Sammy!!!! Love you boy!