Our Sweet Sam

Sam McPherson
September 1999-March 2012

One of my favorite memories is the day we took Stephanie and John to choose a new puppy.  We took the advice of Danna Cole to get a yellow lab and choose one that was very laid back.  Sam's parents had a big liter of black and yellow labs.  Most of them were playing and rough housing in the pen with each other.  Not Sam.  He was the puppy we found in the back of the yard...sleeping!  We pulled on his ears to see his reaction and did some other "tests" and found out he was just puppy we wanted.  Sam's momma was black and his daddy was yellow.  We saw his daddy leap onto their trampoline and we were so impressed!  

Sam loved to lay on his belly on the cool floor with his arms stretched in front of him.

Stephanie and John took very good care of Sam and played with him a lot.

He was the most beautiful English Labrador Retriever.

He was so cute and so much fun.  

Sam was not so good at retrieving but he was great at vertical leaps and making one long jump onto the trampoline.

He looks like a Blue Ribbon show dog!!

Sam and I took long walks together. 

Sam always wanted to be with the family.

Jumping on the trampoline was not possible without Sam being there too!

John and Sam were best buddies.  

These were the days when Sam wanted to follow John everywhere.  He would bark loudly if John left the yard and played on the hill behind our house.

I love this video where Sam was licking Josiah's back and Josiah erupts with laughter!

Sam never went far with out HIS (Jennifer's) soccer ball.

We put headphones on Sam so he wouldn't hear the noise of the Dremmel while we tried to trim his nails.  

There was a lot of love between this boy and his dog!!

Sometimes they even slept together.

Can you imagine sleeping with a 75 pound animal?  It wouldn't be so bad if he went to sleep and was still but Sam made noises like he was having a bad dream, he jerked
(A LOT), and he tried to sleep ON you!!  If you tried to scoot him away or tried to get him out of the bed he would jump right back in!!

One night John gave in and let Sam have the bed and he got on the floor.
This is hilarious!  The last night Sam was at our house Sam slept on the floor beside John's bed as he often did.  That morning I walked in there and saw them sleeping so peacefully and I was so sad. 

Sam was always a wonderful friend to children.

We cried so hard when we had to say "good-bye" to our dear friend Sam.  We never thought we would be "those dog people" but in some ways we became that through the years with our faithful friend, who loved us and was always happy to be in our company.  We received several unexpected sympathy cards after Sam died.  This is what our sweet neighbors said about Sam and echos our sentiments as well.

"Sam was a good and loyal soul who could teach all of us about being loving and gentle.  We will always remember how happy he seemed when he got to go walking, and what a dear, sweet dog he always was."