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This little bundle of wrinkles was born March 21st, 2002 in Mesa, Arizona and was adopted May 5th 2002.
I was living in Irvine, California. I just accepted a job transfer. Having previously lived in Phoenix many years, I had flown out to visit my friend Terre. She suggested that she should get me a dog for my birthday, since the loss of our Bogart. I wasn’t really sure I was ready for another puppy just then, but after looking at these cute little guys, we picked out this little piggy tail black male. 
It took some time to figure out a name, but after about a week, Terre came around the corner at her house and said, how about Sammy? The name of Sammy seemed to be just perfect and thus became Sammy, The Little Dude.
Since I had flown out to Phoenix, and with the cost of air fare to fly my birthday present back to California, I decided to rent a car to drive back with my little piggy tail little dude, who sat on my lap the whole drive back.
I lived in an apartment in Irvine, California so the potty training was a little concern. We would go for walks 3-4 times a day. I got dirt and spread it around on the outside of the patio. I would leave the sliding door open and this little guy would go out and do his “thing.” Almost like saying, “ok dad, outside to potty, got it. What’s next? Sammy was smart, almost scary smart. My desk was in the living room, (small apt,) when the X-Files came on, Sam would run to the TV while it was playing the theme song. He also liked, “You Are My Sunshine,” he would always come over to me, sit down, and look at me, if I sang that song.
As a puppy he found the toilet paper and many a time I would come home to find toilet paper from the bathroom to the living room, to the bedroom and to the kitchen. He would also chase the crows around the apartment complex when we went for our walks. When we were out for our walks, and I said, “let’s go this way,” he would change direction and go the way I wanted to go. We would play chase and he would chase me and tackle my feet. I would fall down and he would jump on me, and then take off running. He loved to play chase, and when there were crows around, he would take off after them. Sunday’s were our go to Huntington Beach outings. Probably more for me than him but it was fun letting him run in the sand and smell all the different smells.
I was really surprised how fast this little guy caught on to things. I would talk to him all the time, since it was just him and I, and he would look at you as if he understood every word. He learned words and sentences, and what different sounds meant.
Since we lived in an apartment, I had to take the garbage out to the garbage dump which was outside and across the parking lot. He knew the sound that a garbage bag made, and would go to the door, and look up at me waiting to go outside. He knew the sound the keys made meant going for a ride. Sammy would always go to work with me when it was cooler days. While I was out doing dealer visits, he would sit in my seat until I got back. He also got familiar with the noise of the cookie jar top coming off, which meant he could always plan on getting a treat. Not that he was spoiled or anything.
In February of 2003, I had the opportunity to go to Utah and help open up that area for the company I work for. So Sam and I loaded up the Budget Truck and away we went.
Sammy was now almost a year old, with a birthday coming up in March. This always meant hamburger. We moved to an apartment in beautiful downtown Tremonton, Utah. Population 27. It is here he discovered cows and horses.
He had this fascination with the cows and horses and on our way to work, he would hang his head out the window and bark and bark as we drove by the horses and cows I lost count of how many stampedes he caused. :)
Since this was once again an apartment, and I only paid $435 a month vs $1200 a month in California, we went for lots of walks. Here he learned, “Where’s your leash,” and “let’s go around the block.” He would also take paper out of the office garbage and shred it like there was no tomorrow. There were plenty of times I would leave him for a few hours and I would come home to an apartment full of shredded paper.
When I first moved to Treemonton, the company had an open house in Salt Lake. I had to be downtown at 9:00AM. After the open house, the bosses took us out for dinner. So it was almost 8:00-9:00PM before I got back home. Sam had not messed up one thing, got into the garbage or had any accident of any kind. Needless to say, I took him out for a walk as soon as I got home and he stood there for over a minute going to the bathroom, looking up at me like to say ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
In May of 2003 we moved again to a house in Clearfield. I was looking for a house with a yard and close to maybe a park or something, of which I found. Here, Sammy learned, “Go running, and, Go to the Park.” I would get up at around 6:30- 7:00 AM every morning to take Sammy over to the park. At 7:01, (and you could almost set your watch to it) he would jump down off the bed, then jump back up on the bed and stand on my chest, and look down at me like to say, “let’s go.” If I didn’t get up right away, he would jump down, then jump back up, and stand on my chest. It was here I started to ask him if he was stretched out? He would stretch out to show me he was ready to go and all stretched out.
When we started going to the park, I would let him off the leash and he would run, chase the crows, never to go very far away from me.
There is a small lake by the park, and he found a hole in the fence surronding the lake. He would always go under it to get closer to the lake, and check things out. I always would ask him if he checked it out. So as unknown things came up, or someone at the door, he would always need to “Go Check It Out.” This was always a big deal when FedEx or UPS or the post office delivered packages. He would always know, and had to always check them out.
There is also a tennis court where we went running. He started to find tennis balls. He would pick them up and carry them around the whole time. So I started picking them up and taking them home. Needless to say, we collected a lot of tennis balls. Over 350 and still counting.
Here is where he also learned that while we were running and chasing tennis balls at the park, he would come and stand on my foot. He wouldn’t move, just stand there, with his paw on my foot. When I would move my foot, he would then wrap his paws around your ankles to tackle you and jump on you, and then run away so you would chase him. The rental had a nice yard and the people next to us had a dog. Sammy would peek through the fence at the other dog and run back and forth. He created quite a path in the yard running back and forth, peeking at the other dog.
He loved the snow and would bounce around in the deep snow, and scoop it up in his mouth as he bounced up and down.
 Since I was back working in Utah, when I would go up to visit my parents, in Idaho, I would also stop in a few dealerships and one by one business picked up and now I have to go there. It’s nice because I stay at mom and Dee’s and Sam loved to go to Grandma and Grandpa’s. Who by the way had little fish treats. Sam soon knew right where they were and if that cupboard door moved Sam was right there to get a fishy. I started putting things in his bowl, and when he came around, “I told him he better go check his bowl”. It took him five seconds to run over to his bowl and, “check it out.” So if he was outside, and I put a fishy treat or something in his bowl, when he came in I’d say, “Sam, and he would look at me, waiting for me to say something, you’d better go check your bowl. Zoom he went.
Sammy loved to go to grandma and grandpa’s house and knew when I asked him if he wanted to go to grandma house he would get all excited and run back and forth to the closet where his leash was and the door. He would bark at all the horses and cows all the way up there and all the way back. He loved the squirrels at grandma’s house and would spend the whole day outside waiting to chase the squirrels. He had a special blanket mom gave him and he would sit and lay on this blanket while he was outside.
Saturday evening October 23rd, 2004, while driving back from moms, Sam had a seizure. I had no idea what was happening, and it scared me to death. He went all stiff and couldn’t breathe. He fell down between the back seat and the front seat and looked stuck. I pulled over right at the top of Malad Pass and tried to help do something. I thought maybe he had gotten something trapped in his throat and could breath. So I stuck my thumb down his throat to see if anything was there. As I pulled out, he clamped down on my thumb. At the time I didn’t feel it. I was crying screaming at Sam “What’s wrong?” For a period of time he didn’t even know who I was and lunged at me. Things did return to normal, if you want to call it that. We started driving again and this poor little guy was sitting on my lap shaking, licking my face. So here I am driving 100 + miles an hour trying to get Sam to the ER hospital in Sunset, Ut. I now noticed my thumb, blood all over the car, meat hanging out of my thumb, and it was beginning to really hurt. I made it about 25-30 miles when guess what, Mr. Idaho State Police. I pulled over pretty quick, he had his gun out and came over to the passenger side, I rolled the window down and as he looked in and saw Sam on my lap, blood all over the windshield, seats, me, and I’m about ready to cry because my thumb was hurting so bad, and I was totally scared about what had just happened to Sammy. He asked for my driver’s license and insurance and I gave it to him, then I said, “If you’re going to give me a ticket please do so and hurry up! My dog just had a seizure and I need to get him to the Dr. in Sunset. He said that I may want to see the hospital myself, because my thumb was swelling up pretty good. He just told me to slow down and get out of here. So off I went again, I did slow down to about 90. I got him to the Dr’s office and they said he was fine, that he just had a seizure, and I may want to discuss what to do with my vet. She then said, you may want to get yourself to the ER. Well other than nerve endings and meat hanging out, I thought it was fine. I got Sammy home and everything was back to normal. Except at about midnight I went to the ER. Boy did my thumb hurt. So $421.60 and two hours later I got to go home and tried to sleep. To this day, if I rub it a certain way, it tingles, and there is no feeling in parts, and a lump on the side.
We went to the vet that Monday, It just so happened, Dr. Ford did her thesis on seizures and how and why and cures. Neat huh? So we started him on the treatment. Little did I know it was going to take a little more than this to stop them. But we finally did and as long as he was on both medications.
In February of 2005, Sammy and I bought a new home. He had his own yard to play in n ow and we would go out and chase the tennis balls. He would chase the ball and bring it back. But when he was about 6 feet away, he would jump at me, hit me right in the chest, knock me over and stand there with the ball in his slobbery mouth. Yes, Sammy had a lot of slobber.
March 12, 2005. Sam and I are up at Grandma’s and Grandpa’s house, playing out in the back yard. Sometimes we would maybe play a little too hard. Anyway, Sam got my ear and I pulled away. I heard this ripping sound. I went in the house to see if it was anything. Mom looked at it and Sam had ripped the inside of my ear. We went to the ER and $450.48 and 7 stitches later. It’s all better.
Sometimes at night when it got late, I would fall asleep on the couch. Sammy would just go up to bed.
So now life is pretty much normal. Doing yard stuff and fence stuff. We still went to the park every morning, rain, snow, sleet or hail. In September I went in for surgery on my knee. I had a tumor growth thing forming from my ligaments and bone just wearing out, and when I went walking it hurt pretty bad. Mom and Dee came down to take care of me, and when we got home I went to bed. Mom said that Sam stayed right there on the bed with me the whole time except to run outside for potty breaks, I think he knew I was not feeling very well. The next day, I was at the top of the stairs and I could tell when Sam was about to go into a seizure. I was on crutches, trying to get down the stairs so I could get Sammy a pill before he had an episode. Well my crutch caught on the carpet and I fell down the top flight of stairs with my head going through the sheetrock. Needless to say, I didn’t get the pill and the poor little guy had two pretty bad seizures right in a row. We finally did get control of his seizures with proper medication. His last seizure was on October 6th, 2005.
So things were finally getting back to normal. Knee was healing, going to the park to run everyday, seizure stopped, I was planning on having a good many years together. I mean, Sammy was only 3 years old, all my kids out lived every possible expectation of longevity.
Thus began 2006. April started the blood in the diarrhea, the check up’s, blood work, endoscopy’s, pills, medications, special food. I tried and the vet  tried everything to figure out what is causing the problem. Nothing was working. He stopped eating and then I noticed the lumps. We did exploratory surgery to find out what kind of lumps these were. Not the good ones. So in July of 2006, I found out my little boy was not going to pull out of this one.
July 12th, 2006. I had to go Twin Fall for work on this day, so I took Sam to the Vet to watch him for me, having had recent surgery and all, I didn’t want to leave him alone and he needed 24 hour care, with him being so sick. I was trying to build up enough guts to be able to put my little boy to sleep the next day. On the way back, the vet called and told me Sammy wasn’t doing very well.. I told her to hang on, I was just about there. As soon as I got to the vet they brought out this little guy. He was barely able to walk due to the pain medication they were giving him. But he walked over to me and wagged his little piggy tail, then laid down. I picked him up and took him to the car and drove home. Sammy passed away, July 12th 6:32PM.
July 5th, 2006. Wednesday. Notes from Dee’s Journal:
Mike and Sammy came up to Trace’s. We were surprised how poorly Sammy looked. Trace and Dee administered to Sammy and Mike. Dee blessed Sam with peace and comfort, his organs would function properly, and those who cared for him would be able to help him.
July 12th, 2006. Wednesday. Notes from Dee’s Journal:
Mike called to report Sammy very sick. Will put him to sleep tomorrow. Later that night called back to report Sammy passed away, approx 6:30Pm.
Sammy was put to rest at the Ogden Pet Cemetery.
Sammy was born a dog, but died a gentleman.
I love you Sammy…………..
Written by Mike Crump
Sammy's Dad
February 26th, 2008
Sammy’s Fund is being set up at the Colorado State University College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.
This will be to help find a cure for many canine diseases.
Questions and Comments can be emialed to Sammy's Dad Mike at sammysdad@sammysfund.com
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