Sam Fisher

    Over the summer, I wrote about my desire to adopt a dog in a post entitled Dog Days. Around this time, I was spending some serious time on Petfinder.com searching for the perfect addition to our household. Each dog I saw and each story I read just tugged at my heartstrings but nothing was like the story of these sad little puppies:

Look at those sad faces and distended bellies

The Pet Finder posting for these little guys described them as brothers, about a month old, skin and bones and weighing practically nothing. Zeus (left) and Hercules (right), as the shelter had named them, were discovered in a dumpster and rescued just in the nick of time.

After further inspection it was discovered that poor Hercules even had a broken leg! 

How lucky these little guys were that the humane society found them and took care of them!

When I first saw the listing for Hercules and Zeus, we weren't quite ready for a dog, and we really had our heart set on a basset hound.  Months later, when we were finally, truly ready for a dog, I once again stumbled on the listing for these dogs. Zeus had been adopted but Hercules, now cast free, was still patiently waiting for someone to come take him home.

Around Halloween we started taking the necessary steps to adopt Hercules. Since the shelter was a couple hours away from home, we filled out an adoption application and were approved for adoption before visiting- we were told this was the best way to go about things and that approval was not a commitment to the dog so if we didn't like him when we visited, we didn't have to take him home with us.

 When we arrived at the shelter, it was clear that the staff really, really wanted Hercules to be adopted and I couldn't help but feel like we were being pressured to take this dog home with us- this was not how I wanted an adoption to happen. After spending less time than we wanted to with this pup, we loaded him into the car and headed home. As we drove away from the shelter, I couldn't help but thinking- "what have I gotten us into?," but, after 30 minutes in the car with him, I could see that he had such potential. Though he was scared, he was so calm and so incredibly sweet- one of the most laid back puppies I'd ever seen.

We had decided, long before Hercules came into the picture, that our dog would be named Sam (Sam Fisher) after the protagonist of a Tom Clancy novel my beau had read. Sam was such a good fit for our new little hound dog and since he had no particular attachment to his shelter name, Hercules became Sam Fisher.

Here is Sam, on the day we brought him home.

 Right away he made himself comfortable on the bed I made for him and was so happy to have some toys of his very own. He was also so glad to have a bowl of food!

After living most of his life in a cage, Sam is so happy to be free. There is no better confirmation of freedom than seeing miles and miles of empty beach in front of you and running to your heart's content and that's exactly what he did on his first trip to the beach. 

He also had a ball rolling in dead crustaceans (good thing he is easy to bathe), splashing in the water and chasing birds! 

Last weekend we made the long drive back to Western New York for Thanksgiving and deer hunting. Despite a little car sickness, Sam was amazing and slept almost the entire 13 hour drive. 

Sam in the car on the way to NY

After arriving in New York on Saturday afternoon, we introduced Sam to snow (which he loved) 

and to my parents 125 pound labradoodle, Odin. 

Despite the fact that Odin is nearly three times Sam's size- the two get along great and both are incredibly grateful to have a dog friend to play with.  

While there is a long road ahead of us getting Sam acclimated to life outside a cage, I am already so glad we took a chance on him (and I'm pretty sure he's glad too).