Stories From The Pack

It was a beautiful spring morning, and I had the opening shift at the café and convenience store. I had to open the store by 5am so I had to be up and ready to go by 4:30am. I loved the morning shift because I was off work by 2 pm and had the rest of the afternoon to do what ever I wanted to do, which was usually spending it with my dogs.

One afternoon I received a text from Deanna, the daughter of one of my best friends. She told me that her friend's dog, Sammy, needed a new home. You see, Sammy is an Australian Shepherd and was purchased for the purpose of working the cattle on the farm. Apparently, she had a promising start until, one day, Sammy decided to break a cow from the herd and chase it relentlessly around the field. That was the beginning of what could have been the end for Sammy.

Deanna’s friend’s parents decided to try an e-collar on her but soon found out that Sammy could run faster in the field than they could drive the truck. Needless to say, Sammy out ran the signal range on the e-collar rendering it useless. It was decided that if they couldn’t stop Sammy from her fierce attack on one single cow they would have to put her down. They felt she was too dangerous to have around the cows.

Deanna told her friend, “My auntie rescues dogs. She will probably take her. Let me ask her.” And that is how I came to learn about Sammy. Deanna texted me and explained Sammy’s situation and possible fate if I didn’t step in and help. Of course, I had to help prevent Sammy from being euthanized.

“Deanna,” I said, “I have to talk to your friend’s parents before anything can be done to save Sammy.” She got me in touch with them as soon as she could and before I knew it we had made arrangements for the dad to meet me at the store after I got off work. He handed Sammy over to me the moment I got off work and that was that. I now had a new dog in my care. How would she react to all the other animals in my house? We would soon find out.

I took Sammy home and introduce her to my three other dogs. It was an easy introduction, she got along with all of them. When the cats showed themselves Sammy just ignored them. After they had all had their supper, I took Sammy out front with me to just hang out by the Koi pond and get to know each other. As we were relaxing, my neighbor from across the street at the end of the block came over and started asking about Sammy. He took a liking to her the minute he saw her.

Marshal invited us over so Sammy could meet the rest of his family and so he might have a better chance of getting his wife to agree to adopt her from me. I hadn’t quite bonded with her yet so when Martin fell in love with her, I couldn’t say no to him. They had three older children and a baby in the crawling stage. Needless to say, Martin’s wife, Cathy, was a little concerned about bringing a strange dog into the home with her new baby.

I stayed and visited for a couple hours and ended up going home without Sammy. Cathy had agreed to take her over night for a trial period to see how she would be around the baby. Everything went well for Sammy and they decided to keep her.

Sammy stayed with Martin and his family for a couple years. She had a very active life with them, but then the baby became a toddler and Sammy started showing an interest in heeling him. At first it wasn’t too hard to supervise when Sammy was around the baby but once he was able to start running around the house on his own the real problem started.

As Cathy’s youngest child became more active, Sammy became more obsessed with nipping the back of his legs. This did not go over well, and I don’t blame them for wanting her gone. They just couldn’t get her to stop, and they were afraid of the behavior escalating to the point of their son getting seriously hurt by this dog.

During the time of trying to decide what to do with Sammy, they decided to move to another town where they had a house built. They thought it would be better for them not to take Sammy with them considering that she was becoming dangerous toward their youngest child. So before they left town they brought Sammy back to my place.

I decided to rehome Sammy with someone that would be a good match for her. I only had her back for a month or two when I thought of Carol. She had to have her dog put down due to health reasons and I thought that Sammy might be a good match for her. She was a single woman on her own and had just lost her dog of several years. I approached her with the idea of her taking Sammy as her own

At first, Carol wasn’t too thrilled with the idea of bringing another dog into her life. I suggested to her, “Come out for a visit and just meet her. If you don’t think she’s a good fit for you, simply don’t take her.” She kept telling me that she didn’t need another dog in her life but she finally did show up for a visit.

“I’m not taking that dog home with me,” she declared as soon as she pulled up to the house. I told her I was okay with that. We visited for a while, had a couple beers and she got to see what a great dog Sammy was. By the time she was ready to go home Sammy had decided that she was going to go with her. As soon as Carol opened the car door Sammy jumped in and was ready to go. Carol grinned at me and affectionately called me a bag as she pulled away with Sammy in her car. That was the beginning of the next three or four years of Sammy’s life.

Sammy and Carol had a great relationship. Carol took Sammy everywhere with her, even to work sometimes. They were like two peas in a pod. Not only that but, Sammy was the only dog that lived in town at the time. It was a town of cats before Sammy got there. Sammy was good with almost all the town cats and had a pretty easy life with Carol.

Three years go by and one day Carol told me she had been diagnosed with lung cancer. By the time she got her diagnosis it had already spread throughout her body. I helped her out as much as I could, whenever I could. Then came the day when she asked me to take Sammy back home with me. She was too weak to care for her anymore.

Sammy came home with me once again. I thought of rehoming her again but, just could not bring myself to do it. “Do you know what Sammy? You always end up back here anyway, so I think I’ll just keep you. You can spend the rest of your days here with us. No more rehoming for you.” And so began the next chapter in Sammy’s life.

This time when Sammy came home with me there were more dogs for her to meet since I had decided to keep a couple of the rescue dogs that came to live with us. What’s a couple extra dogs? Sammy had no problem getting along with all the dogs here and settled in well.

Things were going along quite smoothly for quite a while. Other than the fact that I had to keep an eye on Sammy whenever the younger dogs were playing. That many moving legs were too much for Sammy. She would try to resist the urge to bite the back legs of other dogs playing but, most of the time the temptation was too great to resist. Sometimes the temptation was too great even when a dog was just standing still in the house.

As I began to pay more attention to Sammy’s little quirks, I could see her standing there staring intently at the other dog’s legs. It was as if she was daring them to move. When they didn’t move and the temptation became too great to walk away from, then would come the quick, sharp bite and release to the back of the closest leg to her. Sammy has started more than one fight with this technique.

Since Sammy is shorter than most of my other dogs, she has the unique ability to start a fight between two other dogs without having to fight herself. Sneaky little Heeler. Picture this, Mark is in the kitchen making himself something while two of our dogs stand at the entrance to the kitchen watching with hopeful stares. Sammy stealthily comes up behind them, stops and locks her eyes on the legs being presented in front of her, waiting in anticipation for those legs to make the slightest move.

The other two dogs are oblivious to Sammy crouching directly behind them as they think, “If we stare hard enough and long enough the human just might share that with us.” The two dogs have laser focus for what is going on in the kitchen and Sammy has laser focus on their legs. “Any second now they are going to move and when they do, I’ll be ready.” Sammy repeats this to herself as she waits like a statue for movement.

Finally, Sammy can stand it no more and goes in for the kill. The closest leg to her gets it, the quick snap and release. One of the two dogs at the kitchen entrance, in a split-second, response to the bite, pounces on the dog beside her and the fight is on curtesy of Sammy. And with head held high and a spring in her step Sammy walks away, a job well done. Silly Sammy!

As the years have passed, I have noticed some of her quirks becoming more pronounced. Sometimes, when I walk into the kitchen at night, I’ll find Sammy standing there staring off into space like no one’s home in that head of hers. When I say her name, I get no response and if I touch her when she’s zoning-out she gets startled and jumps turning her head to nip at whatever it was that startled her. Though she never actually nipped me.

It reminds me of a human walking into a room and forgetting what the reason was for entering that room. I do that all the time. So I just thought it was due to the fact that she is a senior dog now and may be slipping a little bit. We all have our moments as we age.

One day I witnessed one of the strangest things I had ever seen. I came home from work and greeted all the dogs before letting them outside. I noticed Sammy hadn’t gone out and went to see what she was doing. When I found her my first reaction was, “Oh my god! What happened to you?”

I was horrified, confused and frightened by what I saw. I could not believe what I was seeing! Sammy’s head had caved in just behind her eye socket. I went into panic mode and began frantically searching around the house for any explanation of how this had happened to her. Did she get her head stuck under something? What could have possibly made that dent in her head. There had to be a physical cause for it. Right?

I could find nothing that she could have gotten her head stuck in to cause such a large dent in her skull. Then it struck me, “She doesn’t appear to be in pain. Sammy, come here.” I checked the dent in her head again and, this time, I noticed that there were no cuts or abrasions of any kind. No signs of any physical trauma. Now I’m thinking, “This is just too weird. How can a dog’s head just cave in like that without a trauma of some sort causing it?” I was utterly baffled by this.

I called the vet and explained what I had come across when I got home. She asked me if Sammy was in any pain and I told her that she didn’t appear to be. The vet said it was a sign of a neurological disorder but, without extensive and expensive testing we couldn’t be 100% sure of what was going on. We decided to hold off on the testing because Sammy appeared to not be in pain and was, otherwise, quite content.

Over the next few months Sammy’s dent gradually went away without any apparent complications. Through it all Sammy was her normal self. I had never seen or heard of this before, and I’ve had a lot of dogs in my life. I am still baffled as to how that could happen.

Sammy is about 11 years old now and is still living happily in our now six strong dog family. She still does the occasional leg grab but doesn’t do it nearly as often anymore. She still stares off into space, and for longer periods now. This year (2021) Sammy suffered a mild stroke and, within a week, was acting like an energetic puppy again. We're not sure if her neurological issues were a contributing factor or not. She can’t handle long walks anymore but loves to go out and visit the ponies regularly.

The End

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