How Sammie Viewed Life
Pepper Scott
I’ve written about how Sammie adopted us before. That was many years ago, but some things don’t change. She will always be my Princess Sammie.
Today is Sammie’s Gotcha Day.
I remember the first day we brought her home from the animal shelter. She was ragged from the time she had spent out in the field with a pack of lost dogs. She looked tired and a little bewildered, but there was something else about her that caught my attention.
She had belonged to someone once.
She was trained. She had good manners. She knew how to be a dog in a home, even though she had somehow ended up without one.
We thought we were bringing home a little guest to foster.
Sammie, apparently, had other plans.
The next morning, I got out of bed and went to check on our little foster guest. When I saw her on the couch, my heart stopped.
She was upside down.
Completely stretched out. Completely still.
I thought she had died during the night.
I ran to get Terry, and the two of us stood there in shock.
Then Sammie opened her eyes and reached her “hands” out toward us.
Oh, what a tremendous relief.
As it turned out, she was not dead. She was simply sleeping in what she considered the most sensible position available.
Upside down.
That was Sammie.
She slept that way. She relaxed that way. She looked at the world that way. I suppose there are worse ways to approach life than deciding early on that the view is better from the other direction.
And she trusted us.
Completely.
After everything she had been through, she had found a home in us in about a day.
If you’ve ever seen Sammie, you probably noticed her white boots. They looked as though someone had carefully dipped each little foot in white paint. And then there were the freckles on her boots.
I always thought our Creator was a creative and thoughtful artist.
Sammie was proof of that.
The funny thing is, she loved being upside down for more than sleeping. She would lie there watching the world from her unusual perspective, and when Terry or I walked by, one of those little paws would reach out and grab us.
It might have been for a belly rub.
It might have been an invitation to hang out.
Or perhaps she simply wanted to remind us that we were walking past a perfectly good dog who was available for attention.
She was very persuasive.
Today, on her Gotcha Day, I think of our upside-down Sammie. I remember those moments that made her so wonderfully, ridiculously, perfectly Sammie.
I miss her.
Of course I do.
But when I think of Sammie, I don’t want to think only about losing her. I want to remember the little dog who found a way to turn herself upside down and still somehow make the whole world look right.
I like to imagine that somewhere peaceful, where there is no pain and nothing to fear, Sammie is still upside down.
And Terry is right there beside her.
She has her Daddy back.
And I’m pretty sure she has him trained for endless belly rubs.
