My First Babies

Sam and Lucy-First Christmas


They still try to lay on my chest like this- just look at how cute and snuggly they are!

Sam...my crazy, sensitive, male dog. He is such a beauty. I have always loved the way he looks. I picked him out at the breeder. I wanted to call him Spot. Sam and I have a special relationship. He is my boy. I was a little concerned about how he would react once Jack was born. Would he be jealous? Would he act out? Mark his territory or some other crazy male dog thing? We brought Jack home and there was nothing but love from Sam and Lucy. They adore Jack and let me tell you, the feeling is mutual. Jack loves them too!

A few months ago, Sam hurt himself while Dan was out of town. He ran into a stick or something and got a horrible gash on the side of his head. In a moment of vanity for my beautiful boy, I actually considered taking him to the vet for stitches for the sole purpose of making sure it would heal with no scar. Since I was home alone with baby Jack, I opted for the liquid stitches and hoped for the best. It healed nicely and we went about our business. A few weeks later, Sam ran into something else and gashed his head and eye. It was bad. Dan took him to the vet and we put 5 different gels and drops in his eye and gave him antibiotics and pain pills for a few weeks. He got better. Then, on April 18th, Dan went to let Sam and Lucy in from the back yard and Sam would not move his leg. When I saw him, I knew. He had dislocated his shoulder. As recommended by our regular vet, Dan took him to an emergency vet where they put Sam under and put the bone back into place- or so we thought. The next day, Sam broke out of his bandage, so Dan and his dad took Sam back to the emergency vet where they checked him again. He was fine according to them, he had not pulled the bone back out of place. Whew! Or so we thought. We kept Sam bandaged for two weeks per the vets orders. After one week, we took him to our regular vet for a bandage check. All was well. I finally realized that something was not right under Sam's bandage. I could just smell infection and could see his skin was red and raw around the edges. Dan and I took his bandage off on Sunday night and took Sam in to our regular vet on that Monday morning. They treated him for what they called "hot spots" and gave us a spray to help with it. All was well- or so we thought. At the end of that week, Sam was not using the leg. At first I was not alarmed. I mean, his leg had been immobilized for two solid weeks. It made sense that it might take a day or two to get things moving again...but after a full work week, I knew we were in trouble. I took Sam toout regular vet that Saturday morning. Things were not good. The vet thought it looked like the shoulder was out again and that we should go see an orthopedic vet. Okay....this was not good. Dan's parents were already in route to take the dogs to Alabama while Dan was out of town. It was time for a second opinion. Well, Dr. Bryan in Decatur said Sam needed to see a surgeon. Joanne took him and the news was not good. From the looks of things, it appeared as though the bone had never been set properly back into place. While we went about our business, Sam had been hanging out, bound up, getting hot spots, with a dislocated shoulder that had never been set back. The cartiledge does not receive nourishment when the bones are out of place. It was surely dead. If the cartiledge could not be repaired, the sensible option according to the surgeon, was to amputate. WHAT? Surgically remove my beautiful dogs' leg? My coursing dog who loves nothing more than to just run at 35 mph? Needless to say, I was devastated. Still am. When the surgeon got in and had a look, it was worse than he expected. Poor Sam. He lost his leg on May 20th 2009. He has been recovering nicely ever since at John and Joanne's in Decatur. They are bringing him home tomorrow. I cannot wait to hold him. I have longed to hug and hold him for so long now. They say he is back to his old personality- in a word- spunky. I have butterflies I am so excited!

Sam- I have missed you and can't wait to have you back!