Funny Pet Story: Where Is Sampson?

I remember years ago when I was 14 years old, which was back in the 1980's; my dad wanted a guard dog so desperately that he decided to look in the newspaper in the classifieds and he saw that a family had just weened some German Shepard pups and they were selling them for $400 each. He rounded up the family and we all got in the family van and drove 60 miles to another town to pick out a puppy.

My dad was drawn to this one male pup, so that is the pup he bought. We took him home and my dad named him Sampson. My dad was bit of a selfish man back then and he had this idea that if children played with a dog it would soften him up, keeping him from being a vicious guard dog. He told me and my younger sisters that it was his dog and that he did not want us sissying his dog up.

As the days turned into months, this puppy was the ripe age of 9 months old and he was anything but aggressive, he was a sweet dog with a great disposition, and a knack for digging holes in our back yard, and going into the next door neighbor's yard to play with his 2 boxer's. He would knock over the neighbor's garbage can. He would tear up garbage and spread it all over their yard. Many times my dad tried to break Sampson out of this habit; However, it continued for another month.

The straw that broke the camels back is when the neighbor called my dad over to his backyard to see Sampson in action. My dad had to chase Sampson around the neighbor's yard because he would not come when he was called. When my dad finally brought Sampson back home, he was so angry with this dog my mother had to stand between him and the dog to keep my dad from kicking him. After she calmed my dad down , she put Sampson back out in the backyard after she covered the hole that Sampson got out of and we all called it a night and went to bed.

The next morning we couldn't find Sampson anywhere, he had broken loose out of the yard and he wasn't in the neighbors yard, either. My dad didn't care to help us look for Sampson, he went to work. My sisters and I was very upset because we loved Sampson; although my dad had different emotions when it came to him.

Two months had past, and one morning my mother decided to drive my sister's and I to school. she brought me to my Junior high school and went on from their to bring my sister's to their elementary school which was about 3 miles away from our home.

She noticed a house directly across from my sister's school. There was a dog in the yard that resembled Sampson. A woman and man was sitting on the porch. My mother realized it was Sampson, so she went up to the house and broke the news to this couple that it was our dog.

The man quickly told my mother that it wasn't her dog, that he bought the dog for his wife and that they had him since he was a pup. My mother called for Sampson to come over to her, and he did, he ran over to her, and was happy to see her.

The couple was shocked and they was caught in a lie. They told my mother how attached they had gotten to Sampson. They even begged my mother, with tears in their eyes for the dog. My mother broke their hearts and told them no, and she brought Sampson home.

My dad was not happy at all to see Sampson. The following day, Sampson once again started digging holes and getting back into the neighbors yard, knocking over their garbage pails and spreading garbage all over the yard. My mother grabbed Sampson's leash, his food bowl, his favorite toy and she brought him back over to the couple across the street from the school and they were so grateful that my mother gave Sampson to them.