Joyce and I welcomed Samantha into our home in Mid November 1994, the lovable fur ball was a most welcome addition. Joyce often remarked that it was fate, " what were the chances of a golden mating accidentally with a golden?" It was meant to be.

It wasn't long before Sam, as we called her, soon towered over Nut, our Pembroke Welsh Corgi. These two sisters soon had defined roles in the family, Nut fiercely independent, Sam fiercely loyal, loving always wanting to be around you or on top of you.

Samantha was a beautiful dog, loving, loyal always willing to forgive your mistakes.

Samantha loved the tennis ball, we had countless games of toss in the backyard. Joyce soon learned that Sam was easier to walk when she had a tennis ball in her mouth. Not so much tugging.

When Sam started to act strange two weeks ago, Joyce took her to the vet for a check up. We got some medications for her and she seemed to respond. However once we dropped the dosage and the symptoms re-appeared we both knew something was seriously wrong, this was a dog that ate her food so fast we had to mix in different sized kibble and water. The morning we took her back to the vet, she had barely touched her food.

I think we both knew it was serious, however we held out hope that a treatable cause would be found and we could bring Sam home. This wasn't to be the case, an X-ray found a large grapefruit sized tumor. Additional x-rays and an ultra sound confirmed our worst fears...cancer had taken over our beautiful girl's body and there was nothing we could do about it.

We brought Sammy home and had planned a last 3 day weekend with our beautiful girl. Since she was not eating dog food she seemed to enjoy sliced ham, hamburger, scrambled eggs with cheese and even a vanilla frosty. That night was extremely rough, Sam so uncomfortable that sleep was hard to come by. Joyce and I made the extremely difficult decision to put her down that Friday afternoon. We were unable to watch the girl we loved so much, in discomfort, not able to be the dog she was for so long.

As I write this on Sunday morning with tears building, I know we did the right thing, our beautiful Sammy has found her momma and they are playing together, waiting for us.

It 's amazing to think that nearly 12 years have gone by since our beautiful Sam came to be a part of our lives. Lot's and lots of great memories, some forgotten until pictures were pulled out of drawers.

You forget how much a part of your lives she was, until she is gone. She was lovable, but mischievous, her height allowing her to get on tables or counters to snare that piece of bread or leftover not yet put away. Being a "nosey-rosie" into the trash can was also a favorite past time of hers.

Sammy what a sweet girl, she will always be a part of our lives, our hearts, our home.

I only hope that time will help heal the wounds of this all too sudden departure of our beautiful girl, Samantha. I hope Nut can handle not having her big little sister around. I hope that Joyce and I can deal with a home that feels strange and lonely without Sam lumbering around.

We miss you Sammy, take care girl.

With all of our love, Joyce, Tim and Nut.

Please also visit Nut.