I am heartbroken and my eyes are swollen. Our sweet, gentle Sammy crossed the rainbow bridge yesterday, Jan 12th. Two Novembers ago when we put our other dog Bondi down, I promised to pour all the love we couldn’t give her into her sister Sam. I know we made good on that promise. Liz told me she thinks Sam hung on so long because she wanted to help heal our hearts.
We got these two pups 15.5 years ago from a farm in Maryland. The ride back to Baltimore was maybe 30-40 mins and Sam threw up during the car ride. I had to hold her the rest of the way. She may have been preparing us for Gabe and we didn’t even know it (big throw up in the car guy). We named her Samos after our favorite Greek restaurant in Highlandtown in Baltimore City. If you know, you know.
Sam & Bondi were the sweetest, most loving dogs we could have hoped for. But first, they were wild lab puppies who ate numerous dog beds, chewed through our drywall, rolled in mud, and drank an entire pot full of oil (followed by days of oil diarrhea). Sam lost the dominance battle to her sister Sam she put up a good fight. Sam, the more white of the two yellow labs, the one we called our platinum blond, wasn’t the smartest of the two but what she lacked for there she made up for in heart. She loved us and these boys unconditionally.
She was just the best, most loving, and softest soul I’ve known. These boys showered her with love and you could see the love she had for us when you looked at her eyes. It was right there.
She loved snuggling up with her stuffy or snagging the double dog bed whenever they were piled up. She loved peanut butter but took 5 minutes to finish a lick bc it would be stuck to her tongue. She was all white so she didn’t show the likely gray hairs that had formed but she had a little bit of brown at the end that the boys called her “coffee tail”.
She was a slick escape artist. We spent one Thanksgiving evening driving around the Bay Hills community in Maryland. We lived on the 13th hole of the golf course there. Sam took every opportunity she had to sneak off to the golf course, jump into the ponds, & roll in goose poop. The groundskeeper quickly learned that the white lab lived at 404 Golf Course Dr 
When we moved across the country she found ways to get out of our gate and wander the neighborhood. Luckily for us Culver City has the best people ever and our neighbors found her while we hurried back from a concert in LA one night. She even escaped off of our deck the first night in Manhattan Beach. Liz found the MB police department on night one after animal control swooped her up.
She was such a freaking survivor: she had Parvo virus when she was just a puppy and almost died, Lymes disease, & she tore her knee and was never fully able to chase balls like before. And a few years ago she lost her hearing. But she persevered. I know she would have tried to hang on forever if she could have.
But she was in so much pain and her body was breaking down so we made the excruciating decision to have a vet come to our house. We wanted her to be here where she was comfortable surrounded by the people who loved her.
The boys all said their goodbyes and each stayed for the parts they were comfortable staying for. Liz and I were with her when they gave her the meds to stop her heart, each of us holding one of her paws. The boys each came out after her heart stopped to say a final goodbye. Christian had his hands on her holding her soft fur and asked me if she could feel him. I told him she couldn’t because she was gone but that she feels his love and he would carry her love with him forever. He completely lost it and crawled into my lap to cry. Gabe has been stoic about it, but I know he processes everything differently and internally. He will talk to us when he’s ready. And McKay is devastated. He says it doesn’t feel like home anymore and that he feels alone. He’s most like me, unfortunately. I said that to Liz last night and she said, it’s not such a bad thing to have big feelings. Liz and I are trying to process through losing the last of our first babies. They have seen us through almost every single phase of our relationship. It feels like a part of us is gone too.
She was just 2 months shy of turning 16. That’s a phenomenal life for a big Labrador. But I wish we had more years. The time you have never feels like enough when it’s time to say goodbye. I will miss her sitting under our feet every dinner, wagging her tail and thanking me for a good meal, eating watermelon off the rind like a human, and watching her get loved on by our boys.
She and her sister were inseparable…they laid on each other, they licked each others ears, they chased after each other in their younger years. I know Bondi has been patiently waiting for her and I can only hope she met her at the rainbow bridge yesterday. I know if the sunset was an indicator it definitely happened. I hope Bondi greeted Sam…licked her face, jumped on her, and then picked up a stick and said: I’m ready to chase after you, grab that tennis ball. I hope they run until they are exhausted. And then drink water sloppily like they always have.
Samos, Sammy, Sam Bear….we love you and will miss you every day. We will keep you in our hearts and I promise to pour all the love I have for you into your brothers. Rest easy sweet girl. I’ll see you at the Rainbow Bridge 
