Animal Tales Part II

We had only lived in our house on Maxwell Road a few months and I was pregnant with Leah when Vern decided we needed a dog. So one day we went to the dog pound and there was a cute medium sized mixed breed female who had just had a litter and because she was a good size we decided to bring home one of her pups. We chose a male puppy, all black, with brown spots above his eyes and a brown bow tie on his chest, just the cutest little pup. We decided on the name of Sam. Right from the start, Vern said that we had to be strict with him and he had to stay in the kitchen, so he fixed a box by the kitchen table for him to sleep in. We lined the bed with an old bath towel Vern had had at the boarding house - we had not been married long enough to accumulate rags - and settled in for our first night as a "family". The usual sad puppy noises came from the kitchen, and Vern would go in and calm him down and he would be quiet and Vern would come back to bed and then sad puppy noises, Vern would go in and quiet, calm,back to bed over and over - just as all new parents do. Finally Vern became resigned and took his pillow and blanket and laid beside him. And that is how we got Sam to sleep in the kitchen while we were in the bedroom two rooms away. When he would start to wail, Vern would go into the kitchen, pillow and quilt in hand and he slowly moved closer to the kitchen door, and if Sam would moan Vern would reassure him that he was right there. Eventually Vern moved into the living room, always when the yipping started, assuring Sam all was well until finally the dog slept through the night. Vern, the great disciplinarian, did train him to stay in the kitchen and Sam never came past the door into the living room. As the years went by, Sam stayed behind the door sill, then his nose was on th carpet, then his paws, and eventually there was a throw rug in the doorway but he never came off the rug unless he was invited in. Sam,at full growth, was the size of a German Shepherd.

We never kept Sam on a leash, but he stayed pretty close to home. When we moved to the area, we were the first house on our side of the street. There were a couple of houses on Fairview Road, and a farmhouse beyond some trees. Now one of the neighbors on the side street had a female dog and she and Sam played together. Vern got worried because when Sam would urinate, he squatted like the female did. He just didn't think it was right that a male dog would relieve himself that way. So there was a cottonwood tree in the backyard and no neighbors close by, and Vern would go stand next to the tree, raise his leg against it, and pee, and so help me, Sam got the idea and peed the same way. Vern was satisfied that his dog, was totally male.

Our daughter, Leah was born in September, 1957, Lora was born in September, 1958, Alissa, in August of 1959 and Mary in September,1961. I don't remember Sam's reaction to Leah but as each subsequent daughter was born, Vern, would place the new baby down for Sam to see and he would look, sniff and turn his head, as if to say "not another one!" and sigh. By the time Angela and Maureen came along in 1963 and 1965, and Vern showed Sam the new baby, I swear before he turned his head, he rolled his eyes. You see, he believed that those children were his to take care of. Where ever you saw our little girls, there was this huge dog with the wagging tail right along side. When we moved back to Martin Street on Peoria's Southside when Leah was ready for Kindergarten, one of the neighbors said if you wanted to know whose house where the neighborhood kids were playing just look for Sam. Another neighbor told about tying Lora's shoe laces one time, and Sam walked between Him and Lora the whole time, which made it pretty difficult to tie a shoe. But our dog was protecting his kid.

We still had Sam when we moved to the country in rural Washington. That was in August of 1970. That Thanksgiving we went to Missouri to visit Vern's family and Keith and Marge offered to feed him while we were gone. Sam slept on a pallet in the barn. Keith said they came out to feed him and he was gone. We don't know if he came looking for us at the old house or had gone some place to die. We never found his body and all of us felt that some how we had let this great protector, friend, first 'child' down. He was the best.