AlfaFilly

Greetings all. I only mentioned this on Twitter so far, but I recently experienced the passing of my border collie, Samson/Sammy. He was 15 and some months, and lived a very long, wonderful life. I had honestly expected him to pass, or be put to sleep, 2 years ago, but he held on for all this time. It was a little ironic, but pleasing, that he at least waited for me to graduate and come back home to spend one more month with him.

Of course, he loved to make things difficult, and fell ill on September 5th past midnight... during Tropical Storm Gordon. So we couldn't help him until the vets opened and the storm calmed around 8:30 am. I stayed up all night with him with Pyro and my parents. He wasn't in any pain, and was a lil loopy, but I'm glad I got to spend some time with him one last time.

I'm mentioning him here, because I have brought him up in journals a few years ago. And I also just want to talk about him a little. I've dealt with pet deaths before, and they're never easy. But it always makes me a little sad, that once they pass away, you start forgetting about things they did and enjoyed doing. So I just want to spend some time documenting all his quirks and funny things. This is honestly mostly just for me to look back on, but if anyone wants to read it you certainly can.

I would like to preface, before saying anything else, that if you wish to comment on this journal, please avoid the "I know how you feel, my X died too" comments. I know you don't mean it, but I find those comments very disrespectful. So please do not comment something like that. Thank you!

We got Sammy 15 years ago from a breeder in California. I was so excited to get a border collie of my own! We have a joke, that when we were sent puppy pictures of him, I printed them out and stuck them on my wall. Except... the pictures weren't of him, they were of his brother. Because we were supposed to get that puppy, but someone else picked him, so we were given Sammy instead. And despite this, I kept the old puppy pictures on my wall, and still have them there 15 years later as a joke LOL It's weird to imagine what would have changed if we HAD gotten that original puppy! Either way, he was flown out to us, and we picked him up from the airport. I can still remember seeing his puppy face in the kennel and letting him out in the car on the way home and he laid on my lap. We named him Samson after the figure from the Bible, because he was "so strong" to fly on the plane by himself as a puppy. He slept soundly in his crate that first night, but the second night he cried and cried and because we are terrible dog owners, we let him out and he slept in the bed.

When he got older he became an outside dog with our chow Ding-Ding. Sammy was kept in a kennel and she would just roam the fenced in back yard. Ding was elderly at the time, and she was always really motherly, so she had a fondness for digging Sammy out of the kennel. One time, she dug him out, then dug them BOTH out into the front yard. Ding just went and rested on the porch, but Sammy ran away. We panicked and searched the neighborhood for hours. We ended up finding him in the woods faaaar down the neighborhood, and took him back home. Ding passed away some time later, and Sammy didn't like being outside alone anymore. He became an indoor dog permanently then.

Sammy loved to play frisbee like every border collie does. He also loved to run around and around and around the round-pen of our old horses. He left a huge ditch in the ground from running so much. One time, our horse Dusty picked Sammy up by the scruff and pulled him into the round-pen with him and Sammy didn't even care.

Sammy was with us during several hurricanes, including Ivan, Dennis, and Katrina.

One time, Sammy protected my dad when our neighbors dog broke through our fence and was going to full-on attack him, but Sammy got inbetween them and fought him off. He didn't even get a scratch on him.

Sammy also didn't like the mailmen. And the mailmen didn't like him!

Sammy didn't really leave the house much. He wasn't well trained on a leash and he was horrible when you'd take him anywhere. He was a BIG breed of border collie. Though they're supposed to be around 35 lbs average, he was always around 50lbs and that was NOT being overweight. So after a point when he needed his shots we just had the vets come to the car and give them so we didn't have to take him in. But, well, regardless of whether or not he ever left the sphere of our home, he didn't really care much.

One time my dad put a shock collar on him to train him, but he shocked him one time and felt so guilty he never did it again. Sammy was pretty well behaved, he'd listen if you called and come. He just wasn't well socialized with strangers. He was fine if you brought people into the house, and same with other dogs. He'd beg people who visited to play with him! But if he didn't know you, he didn't trust you.

When my cat was a kitten, she loved to jump on his head and bite his face, and he loved to playfully toss her around. He never really played with our old toy poodle Buddy, but they were the best brothers. When my mom got her Yorkie, Sadie/Tater/Toot, she loved to roll all in front of him and bite his lips and he would just put his leg down over her to hold her away when he got enough of her. He let our chinese crested Harley hump him every single day after dinner even though you could tell he didn't give a crap about him LOL

Sammy loved to sleep on the loveseat in the living to the point that couch became HIS couch. You could sit on it, sure, but you better had make room for him. My now-passed Granny Lois used to share the couch with him. She also used to say "Eww, he smells like outside" when he'd come in. We still joke about that quote now. He also slept on a bench in front of my parents bed for years, until he couldn't jump up anymore.

He almost died once, when he got a bowel compaction. Another time, he mysteriously peed himself and it was filled with blood. Besides these times, he never really got sick or ill.

Sammy loved to stick his nose in people's crotches LOL When you'd try to leave the house, he'd bark because he didn't want you to go. And often he'd pretend to "attack" you to keep you from leaving by tugging on your clothes.

Sammy hated it when you made a buzzing sound and waved your fingers around like a bee. He would bark and get so mad.

I loved to kiss him on his floppy cheeks and watch him "wipe off my kisses" with his hands. He still did that up to just a few days before he passed away. I loved to scrunch up his snout to show off his teeth and he wouldn't care. Or pinch his cheeks, or lay on top of him and make him grumble and play-growl. He wasn't really a lovable dog. But he did like to stick his head between your legs so you could rub his back and neck.

He loved to play, and I'd chase him around the house with toys. He loved to be chased. He'd run around the living room. He did this for a very long time, up until he couldn't really run anymore a few years ago.

He used to come into my room at night and jump up and sleep in my bed, but he'd never stay when it was time for me to sleep, even when I wanted him to! Sometimes he'd roll around on my bed and fall off. When he couldn't jump up in the bed anymore, he'd come into my room and sleep on the floor. He did this up until a couple years ago, when he decided he didn't wanna sleep on the hardwood and would rather have a dog bed. I would throw pillows on the floor and he'd sometimes sleep on those.

His favorite sleeping pose was on his back, contorted, with his hind legs up in the air.

Sometimes he liked to roll around on stuff and make happy grunting noises.

He loved food. Like. A lot. He was extremely greedy. He'd pester me for food constantly, especially his "midnight treat". This past year, after he went nearly blind, deaf, and scent-less, he really only had food left to care about, so he got even greedier to the point it was almost annoying. The day before he passed away, I was making breakfast in the kitchen and looked over to see only his head peeking around the corner, his cloudy eyes sparkly with eager hunger and his ears pinning straight up.

My favorite thing, though, was how much he loved to open Christmas presents. That was his "thing". He would hold onto stuff with his paws and tear the paper off with his teeth. He'd do it to his own presents and even my presents. He loved seeing presents go under the tree cause he knew he got to tear them up. Sometimes we would just wrap up his existing toys just so he could have more things to tear up. I'm gonna miss that.

I'm going to miss him a lot. But I'm happy we had the time we had with him and I got to grow up with him.

Rest in Peace, Sammy. May you chase many frisbees and run around all you'd like.

And eat ALL THE TREATS!