Sammie

Thanksgiving weekend of 2014 we went to a local pet rescue center to meet a prospective dog to adopt-- a chocolate lab puppy which Hayden would not go anywhere near. Then one of the women working there asked us if we had met Sammie. We did not recall seeing a Sammie on the website so she told us she was a 5 year old hound. We had our hearts set on a retriever, but she suggested Sammie's disposition might be better for Hayden. So they called up Sammie's foster mom & a little while later a young woman came in with a dog who didn't seem all too enthusiastic about being there. Turns out she was a long-legged coonhound mix which was a breed we were not at all familiar with. 

But within a minute or so none of that really mattered because Hayden just casually accepted the leash from the foster mom & literally started to head out of the building. This is a child who barely cared about visits to the zoo & generally speaking showed little or no interest in animals. But with that, of course Dan scrambled to catch up with him & grab food & a bed, while I was suddenly writing a check. Next thing we know we were on our way home with a strange dog & welcomed a new family member into our completely unprepared-house.  

We soon learned she was not 5 but going on 7, & after looking through her paperwork (yes, she actually had a fair amount of it) we also learned we were her fourth home-- two were in Georgia & two were in NJ. Her first family named her Sammie-Sweetie & it appeared everyone after that kept it. If they thought she was so sweet we don't know why they let her go, but they all did. We kept her name to avoid confusing her but dropped the Sweetie part (we thought Sammie was fine as-is). 

Sammie fit right into our family. We quickly realized she was 50% sweet & 50% stubborn (maybe 60/40). She would like schedules & predictability, & would not like if things were out of routine. She would never be just hungry-- she would get hangry. And she would almost always act like she was doing us a favor when we pet her-- eventually start barking until she got a treat. It's as if she was trained to expect a prize for sitting there & tolerating having her belly rubbed or her back scratched. Other times she would practically push her head into us-- either our hand, or our leg-- because she didn't want us to stop. But she'd still expect a prize for her attention efforts. She would generally be an impatient dog & also would not listen too well. We would learn she was not a fan of other dogs, but she was a people-person (or a people-dog) especially with adults. She would not exhibit much athleticism (playing catch, etc), but she would certainly be on high alert if a Fed Ex, UPS, or garbage truck was coming up the road. It wasn't long before we realized just how much she would have in common with Hayden.

She joined our family over Thanksgiving weekend six & a half years ago, & sadly left us this Independence Day weekend. This morning, July 3rd, we had to put her down. She was 13 1/2. She was the absolute sweetest pain in the ass, probably much like a human teenage daughter, but with unconditional love mixed in. She completed our family. And rescuing an adult (almost senior) coonhound instead of a retriever puppy turned out to be the very best unexpected plan we could have ever imagined.

I don't know whether or not she'd be impressed with a rainbow bridge, but as she slipped away I whispered, "look for the trucks & the cookies." 
 
R.I.P Sammie Capela
January 2008 - July 2021