A Man and His Dog, The Beginning

This story is so long that I’m going to break it up into different posts.

I’ve told stories about my good friend Sam quite a bit in the life of my blogging. The reason for that is because Sam was special. She came into my life when I was otherwise completely alone and I came into her life just in time to save it. Sam and I had quite a few adventures in her short life and she developed quite her own personality. This is the story of a man and his dog.

In the beginning…

I met Sam when she was only two months old.

I was at a very low point in my life, having just hit bottom because of an under-financed custody battle. But, I’ve told that story already. Suffice it to say that I was homeless, staying with friends, sleeping in my truck… whatever.

Since I was broke and really had nothing else to do, I borrowed a friends digital camera and headed to the mountains. After a few days alone, I started thinking about getting a dog. The only thing that really stopped me for a while was the fact I was homeless and didn’t really want another living creature to share in my failure. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to take care of a dog. I did mention it to a friend that was helping me at the time. He thought it was a great idea.

I forgot about a four legged friend for a little while. Since I was taking all those pictures and had always wanted one, I started designing a website offline on the only thing I owned worth anything… my laptop. Thus was born West Virginia Outdoors… gone now but the origins of this blog and every other blog I’ve had since.

I was staying with a friend, whom we will call Bob, and his wife. One evening I come in from a hike and Bob wants me to go with him to the store. I do and he stops at a house I am unfamiliar with. As soon as we get out of the car seven puppies come running. It was funny as hell. They were still young, clumsy, big ears flopping and tripping all over each other. I thought they were hound dogs. I fell for the oddball. She was the only one colored black and tan. She was a lot more timid than the rest and she had these huge puppy feet. Bob wasn’t real sure he could talk the owner out of one of the puppies. So, although I fell for her that night, I had to leave her. I had already decided on a name, if I got her. Samantha… funny name for a dog but I wanted to call her Sam.

About a week later Bob brings Sam to me. I was very happy but concerned right off the bat. She didn’t have the energy she had the week before. Her eyes were sad. She didn’t want to eat. I thought it may be a sibling thing. She was given to me in the morning and by that evening I was wondering if she would live. She couldn’t hold anything on her stomach, not even water. I was really worried about her. It kind of put an exclamation point on my situation and is exactly why I was concerned with getting a dog. I had no money or I would have taken her to a vet. As it was the only thing I could offer her was comfort.

I tried not to let her out of my sight as evening turned into night. There is a small patch of woods beside Bob’s house and the one time I did let her out of my sight I found her curled in a ball in the woods. She was so sick by then that I thought she went there to die. Not on my watch my friend. I started to take her in the house. It was getting dark and it was January. She would most definitely not survive the night outside. And I wasn’t going to leave her outside either. I love Bob and his family for helping me but at the same time I hate them for not helping Sam. She wasn’t allowed in the house plain and simple. That was about the same time I decided I didn’t want to be anywhere that Sam wasn’t allowed.

I made an easy decision. I made a bed in the cab of my truck and spent the night outside with Sam. She was deathly sick by that time and just barely had the strength to move. I lay down with her in my truck. She lay on my arm looking up at me every once in a while with those sad eyes. My heart broke for her. I felt helpless. I lay awake all night petting her, coaxing her to drink water.

Sometime around daybreak I drifted off to sleep. I don’t know why but I felt in my heart that if Sam survived the night she would be alright. A couple hours later I wake up and look right into Sam’s eyes. There is a love there that had replaced the sadness from the night before. I was overjoyed, I had a new friend. I think the feeling was mutual because even though she stayed sick for a few days, she wouldn’t let me out of her sight.

It took Sam about a week to really get back to being a puppy. And there begins the journey of a man and his dog.

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Next post in this series. A Man And His Dog, The Backwoods.

To be continued…