Saving Sammie

Earlier this week, our oldest kid woke up, found my husband, and told him that he had a dream about Sammie. My husband asked to hear all about it, and J told him that Sammie brought her puppy to him so he could pet him.

Little did J know that when we first brought Sammie home, we felt pretty certain she had had a litter of puppies (we can’t remember if we assumed this because of physical reasons or if the shelter told us).

But we didn’t know anything about them – how many there were, what they looked like, whether Sammie had been bred or if it was an accident, where they were – nothing. I thought about them now and again, but they were one of the things I knew we would never know about Sammie’s background, and eventually that became okay.

Hearing J say that she was reunited with her puppy, and that she had brought him to see him, was so sad and comforting all at the same time. Mostly, I’m happy to know that she’s with her baby and that she loved J enough to want them to meet.

RIP, Sweet Girl

Posted on January 17 by Sam

Last year, my husband and I had baby #2, and we had every intention of using cloth diapers like we did with baby #1. However, the daycare we found did not accept cloth diapers, so we decided to use disposables at home and at school.

Sammie, it turns out, was obsessed with the diapers. Dirty or clean, she would seek them out to chew them/eat them. She even dug them out of our trashcans a couple times. They always passed without issue, but we tried to keep them where she couldn’t get to them.

Last week, she got one and I have no idea where she found it. I just saw remnants of what was left in our bedroom. A couple days later, she threw up and pieces of the diaper were visible, so I assumed it was passing like the others. The next day, she had diarrhea and wasn’t acting like herself, so we started to worry she was sick. When she didn’t improve overnight, we called the vet and got her in to be seen. They did blood work and scans and sure enough, the diaper had gotten stuck in her bowels. Her kidneys were showing signs of dehydration, so they put her on fluids to get her ready for forced throwing up or surgery. After a while, she had perked up a little and the vet asked us what we wanted to do. They didn’t think she was strong enough to try the forced vomiting and cautioned that she wouldn’t survive without surgery but had only a 50/50 chance of making it through surgery. Obviously, we wanted to take the chance!

The vet had almost completed removing the diaper when Sammie’s body gave out and she passed away.

I’m crying again just typing this.

She was about 12 years old, and we had her with us for about 9.5 of those years. I feel so blessed for that time together, but I will miss the way she would seek me out for comfort during thunderstorms. I will miss her kisses and the way she had trouble stopping once she started. I will miss her random spurts of puppy playfulness, despite her age. I will miss her constant presence in our family.

It still seems so surreal, though. I keep expecting to see her, or to get a call that she’s ready to be picked up whenever we can come by.

We finally told our oldest on Sunday, and he is still processing it. During bedtime one night, he told me he wanted to talk to the doctor to make sure Sammie wasn’t sick in heaven. We have looked at pictures of her and watched videos to remember her, which seemed to help (I know it’s helped me).

Sammie, I love you baby girl. And I have from the moment you were ours. I hope you felt that every day.

Weekend Getaway

Posted on October 1 by Sam

We took a trip this weekend and found a pet sitter through Rover for the first time. While we’re not home yet, it was such a great experience. She even bought Emma a new Frisbee when hers broke!

Check out these photos she sent us of our sweet girls: