My sister found Sammy standing on a bridge on the wrong side of the railing 16 years ago. It was a cold October, and he was shivering. Despite the fact that she was on the way to an appointment, she could not leave him there. She reached out to him, and he let her pick him up and immediately snuggled into her. She took him home, but was unable to keep him, so she called my mom to tell her what had happened. My mother immediately said that she would send my dad to pick him up.
Sometime later, my dad walked in the door with the cutest thing I had ever seen! It was love at first sight! He ran from room to room until he had seen the whole house. We knew we had to try to find his rightful owners, but we all knew we were hoping that we wouldn't! We decided that if we did not find his owners in two weeks, we would keep him. Lucky for us, no one seemed to be looking for him.
For the past 16 years he has been our baby. He brought such an incredible amount of joy, love and laughter into our lives! He loved playing ball (even by himself), chasing squirrels, smelling flowers, rolling in the snow and playing peek-a-boo. He also enjoyed "singing" with me (only when I hit really high notes!), and would occasionally say "mama" (after lots of kisses). He was incredibly smart and was able to do several "tricks" that we didn't even have to teach him. As an example, the first time we said: "Go get your leash", he went and got it! The first time my mom said: "Go wake up daddy", he did. He was so full of love, and was prone to sudden and spontaneous attacks of kisses!
Sadly, on September 22, 2007 we had to put him to rest. We cannot know his exact age, because we found him, but we estimate that he was between 16 1/2 and 17 years old. Choosing to let him go was one of the hardest and most selfless things I have ever had to do, but we did not want him to suffer anymore. We will never stop loving or missing him. He was a special boy and I hope he is making everyone up in Heaven laugh too. Goodbye my sweetie-puss. I pray I will see you again one day in front of the rainbow bridge.