Sammy Part 3: The end of the beginning

May 2010

For some reason I couldn't get her to take a picture this day without her licking her nose.

My family moves a lot. We had been living in this house on Wisconsin Street for about two years. It might be hard to believe, but that’s kind of a long run for us. Maybe we found better rent somewhere else or maybe we didn’t like this land lord anymore or maybe we just felt it was time to move. It really doesn’t matter too much to me by this point. This time we were moving back out to the country. We would be right next to the Fox River within spitting distance of a golf course. Not quite like the Montello house, but it’s a nice approximation.

Sammy is almost fully grown now. Her rounded puppy features have all but vanished into a dog that could no longer fit in the palm of my hands or wear a tiny pink puppy sweater. Although we’ve kept the sweater anyway – due to its excellent tug of war properties. She can jump outrageously high for such a short dog, and she is perfectly happy to stand on her hind legs. It makes me wonder if she could be taught some elaborate tricks. I know we won’t put in the time to teach her anything too fancy, but I still like the possibility.

I think Sam likes this new place, maybe not at first. She was only just beginning to enjoy the outdoors and moving to a strange place probably disoriented her. However, she seems to be enjoying the birds that hide in the bushes by our front door and the squirrels which daringly wander into our yard. Our new house has huge bay windows which look out onto the river. This gives Sam the opportunity to be the guard dog I think she’s always wanted to be. Her barks are still high pitch, but it’s weird to think how they’re much deeper than her little puppy yips. They grow up so fast… you know?

We live next to a boat landing actually, and so a few times now, people have driven up to put their boat in the water. Sammy has made sure to let them know that she did not give them permission to trespass on her fair territory. We think she might be developing a bit of a princess complex. It’s our fault, we can’t help but to spoil her a little bit.