🐾 Sam’s Tale 🐾
I got Sam when she was around 2 years old. Her pic at the shelter popped up on my feed and I was smitten immediately. I drove down to Kerry to meet her and it was instant and mutual. She was my dog from that moment. Sam had obviously had a rough start in life - she was very timid, flinched easily and was missing a toe on her left hind paw, which seemed to have been sheared off. She was deathly scared of children and her tail was strictly off-limits to touch. The story I had been told was that she was found at the side of the road surrounded by her dead pups. I have no idea whether this was actually true, but when I got her spayed later, the vet confirmed that she did have pups in the past.
First meetings 3rd May 2014
A very sad girl.
Possibly her first ever petting
Instant trust
"Yep, this is my dog"
The journey home
When I got Sam home, I let her settle in at her own pace. She didn’t even know what a ball was. It took nearly 6 months for her to learn to run for the ball or play tug and even then she gave up on tug without much of a fight. Despite her bad start in life, she developed into the sweetest girl. She never gave me any cause for concern over her temperament and loved everyone she met, although sometimes that took a bit of time. I never even had to train her. She learned quickly and settled into life in my apartment without any prompting.
Safe at last
A typical Sam sleeping position
A loving embrace
That tongue 😉
She knew very quickly she was going to get doted on
She didn't even have to be lead trained
After 12 happy years of devotion and leading a very happy life, Sam suddenly developed an illness which seemed to get worse over the space of a week. She had never been sick a day in her life before this. But now she was very lethargic, had trouble standing and seemed to be a bit out of it. When I took her to the vet, she needed a stretcher to be taken in to the clinic and when the vet told me she had a large mass in her stomach I knew her time was nearly at an end. I was given the option of surgery, but that would only prolong her life by 4-5 painful weeks and I wasn’t going to put her through that so I made the only decision I knew was right. Sam drew her final breath peacefully with me petting her to comfort her as she made her way over the Rainbow Bridge.
Kilmuckridge beach walk
Forest walk at Donadea
On the lakeside in Killarney
Her final moments
With her for her last breath
Goodbye little girl ❤️ 🐾 🌈
Sam was a perfect dog. No future rescue could ever replicate her uniqueness, so for me, One More Day is my way of keeping her close. She’s right there on the logo, and she’s the heart of everything I do.
