Sammie

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Update 12/11/12:

Now is your chance to bring a senior Home for the Holidays! MAESSR has extended its fall campaign to match our senior and special needs Springers with new, loving families. This is a wonderful opportunity to open your home and hearts to a dog that really needs you. 

Adoption fees are being waived for all seniors (age 9 and older) and for special needs dogs through the end of December. Keep your eyes open for that special one who would fit perfectly into your life! It could be Sammie; it may be another. Let your heart guide the decision and all else will fall into place! 

Update 11/08/12:

Sammie has completely recovered from her eye surgery and is doing fantastically these days. She will run around the yard with the other dogs and has no problem finding her way back to the porch. The great outdoors is not really her thing, though. She would much rather be in the house with her people!

This little girl has no problems negotiating her world, and her foster mom is not sure Sammie knows she is blind. In fact, Sammie can find a squirrel up in a tree and will try to climb up to get to it! Oh, if only that camera was always available there would be pictures! Sammie is the first one to greet visitors and make them welcome. She also loves, loves, loves the little children who visit, and she is very good with the really little ones.

Sammie truly is one of the sweetest dogs her foster mom has ever had in her care. She is a happy, content little girl and would love to have a person of her own to shower with love and kisses.

Update 09/25/12:

With improving health, Sammie is doing very well these days. Unfortunately, problems with the glaucoma persisted, and Sammie’s eyes needed to be removed. This has caused her no problems at all; as a matter of fact, she attended the Rainbow picnic in Williamsburg the day after surgery and had a wonderful time! This little girl is a social butterfly and would spend all her days traveling and meeting people if it were left up to her. Ask anyone who was at the Pasadena picnic in Maryland. When Sammie got tired she would go into the nearest crate for a short nap and was more than happy to share it with anyone else who needed a snooze.

Since her surgery, Sammie now gets out and trots around the big fenced yard at her foster home with no problems. When her foster mom takes everyone walking in the fields, Sammie is right there with all of her canine pals. She looks forward to getting out and is the first one to the gate. No special attention is needed for this little girl to find her way around! She does just fine on her own and returns to the door when she is ready to come back inside. Her foster mom does help her verbally once in a while with commands like “step” or “bush” when it is unfamiliar territory, at which time Sammie will stop and take her time proceeding.

The slow kill heartworm treatment is proceeding very well, and the heart medication Sammie takes seems to be doing the trick. She no longer pants, and her stamina improves every day. What great news! 

Sammie displays no separation issues when her foster mom leaves the house. When it’s necessary to crate her, she is fine with that as well; she just waits patiently for her foster mom to return. Sammie must think she is a Springer because, when she’s let out of her crate, she does a familiar little greeting dance and her tail never stops moving. This is one happy little girl!

Although she doesn’t play with toys, Sammie love rawhide chews and will collect all the pieces the other dogs leave behind. She then hides them in her bed in the foster mom’s bedroom. Just to make sure they don’t disappear, she waits until everyone has gone to bed to enjoy them. What a clever girl!

Despite encountering some significant bumps in the road, Sammie loves life and adores people. This is one spunky little girl who’s greatest wish is to give her love to her very own family, a family that would love her back and fill her life with adventure. Do you have room in your heart and in your home for sweet Sammie?

Update 08/29/12:

Sammie is settling into her new foster home very nicely. It’s a quieter home, and she seems very happy to have only two other dogs to deal with on a daily basis. She has picked out her special places to spend her time, and, at night she sleeps in a dog bed beside her foster mom. This little girl is never far from where the people are but, when she does disappear, her foster mom usually can find her checking out the kitties at the back of the house. Sammie can smell them but can’t get to them. She seems convinced that, if she tries hard enough, she will find a solution for this problem!

When the other two dogs in residence go in and out, Sammie goes with them; she even uses the doggie door when it suits her. Although she doesn’t seem to like the grass much and will stick to the patio or sidewalk, steps are not a deterrent, presenting no problem for this spunky little girl!

When Sammie first entered her new foster home, she proceeded to check it out from one end to the other. She was so concentrated on this job that she walked right over and under the two dogs in residence! Taken aback, they both jumped up on the sofa and wouldn’t come down until she was finished! The other foster in the home may never have seen a cocker, and his foster mom wonders if it took him a little while to figure out that Sammie was actually a dog. Everything has worked out for all concerned, and he now is starting to look out for Sammie in cute little ways.

As her health has started to stabilize, Sammie has begun more medications for her conditions; she seems to be responding well to them. The swelling in her eyes has gone down a little, and they seem to be less painful for her. She will go back soon for a checkup, and hopefully be able to receive her vaccines at that time.

This little girl is one sweet baby. She loves attention and is happy to give all she has to everyone who walks in the door. The better she feels, the more she blossoms. She’s even begun to play with her chew bone, throwing it up in the air and retrieving it before it disappears! Sammie is a delight to have around and never misses the chance to give her foster mom kisses to let her know all is well in her world.

Original:

Sammie came to MAESSR with her Springer friend when their North Carolina family wanted to travel more, but could not afford to kennel the dogs. 

Sammie is such a wonderfully sweet girl that it is heartbreaking to look into her swollen eyes and know that she is in pain. She has glaucoma in both eyes and the vet determined that the lens in her right eye is totally detached. Soon she will begin receiving drops that hopefully will reduce the swelling in the eyes. She is blind in both eyes, so if the drops do not work, then she will have surgery to remove the painful eyes. Sammie also has a grade 3 out 6 heart murmur with an enlarged heart. We will be starting this little sweetheart on some medicine that should help her heart work a little more efficiently, but it will not cure the problem. To make the heart issue even worse, Sammie is heartworm positive. She will be started on the slow kill method of heartworm treatment in the next week. At this time, we are just planning on getting Sammie stable and then the determination will be made of what is best for Sammie.

This sweet little girl loves human contact and attention. She follows her foster parents around and has even jumped into the recliner with her foster dad. She definitely has spirit!

Please keep Sammie in your thoughts.