Goodbye, Good Boy.
Tuesday was a beautiful day here. Clear blue skies, bright sun showing off the remaining fall colors on the trees in the distance, and a wonderfully brisk sixty degrees. A perfect autumn day, really. Not the kind of day one expects to be standing at the top of a hill overlooking the sanctuary saying last goodbyes to a good friend. But we were. We lost Samson in the wee hours of Tuesday morning.
Sam was one of those dogs you can’t help but love. Even people who started out wary of Chows ended up counting him as a friend. He was eleven years old, a good run for a Chow. A miraculous run, actually, for a dog like Samson who wasn’t supposed to survive the vivisection lab.
Several weeks ago, we noticed that Sam just wasn’t himself. We took him to our vet and at first, there was no obvious reason for his malaise. A couple of weeks later, though, it became very clear that whatever was happening was serious. He was losing the muscle tone in his head and face. We took him in again, and the news was not good. His brain was no longer sending signals to the nerves in his face and no matter what was causing it, brain tumor or maybe brain abscess, the prognosis was grim. We took him back home with some antibiotics (though it sort of felt like we were trying to put out a wildfire with a squirt gun) and hoped for the best.
In the coming days, Sam seemed to come alive again. While there was no improvement in his outward appearance, it was obvious that he was feeling better. Where before, he had plodded slowly behind us, now he practically ran to keep up! Just last week, I watched from the office window as he slipped through the gate and explored the entire horse pasture, sniffing intently at each item of interest he happened upon. We knew that a round of antibiotics wasn’t going to fix whatever was causing his brain to shut down, but he was happy and content and most of all, he wasn’t suffering.
Monday night, one of our wonderful volunteers, Lynn, came to walk the dogs and put them to bed. She was the last one to see Samson, and when I emailed her to break the news, she shared his last bedtime with me.
“I shared that bagel you gave me with the dogs and he loved it. It’s weird - I was cleaning the dog house last night and for the first time ever I shook out his blanket and fluffed it for him. He was practically jumping on it to get in it and I had to keep moving him so I could put the blanket back down. When I left, he was lying in his bed with a big pile of those vegan bacon treats and a fluffy blanket. He looked so happy. At least he wasn’t feeling like he was a couple of weeks ago. We should all be so lucky to be feeling so good and go so peacefully.”
When I found him Tuesday morning, he was lying where Lynn had last seen him, on his giant round bed topped with his blanket. He probably finished off his last meal, his big pile of vegan bacon treats, and drifted off to eternal sleep on his fluffy white comforter. We should all be so lucky.
November 3rd, 2007 at 2:05 am
Aww, that’s a great picture of him and a nice tribute to what a wonderful dog he was. It definitely wasn’t the same without him on Thursday and I kept looking for him to come around the corner. He was such a sweetheart and I will miss him very much!
November 4th, 2007 at 1:29 am
I will miss Sampson as well, and am relieved to know that he was not suffering during his last days.
November 4th, 2007 at 8:01 pm
I know I’m going to be looking for him at the next work party. I sure will miss him, but I know he had a good run and lots of love at SASHA.
November 11th, 2007 at 11:05 pm
Sampson was the dog who let me brush him and pet him the most. He was serene in his place at SASHA. I am lucky to have met him and happy to have been so accepted by him. He was wonderful.
December 10th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
I have been out of touch since the end of summer. So sad to hear of Sampson’s passing. He was a very sweet dog. Always greeted me when I came to the farm. I will miss seeing him again. Glad he found his was to Sasha Farm after the rough start in his life. Thanks to all who made his life better.