A quick note about Sammy

If you’re a reader of this blog, or if you follow me on social media — hell, pretty much if you interact with me at all, you’ve heard about Sammy. Maybe you’ve seen some pictures of her, maybe in one of the talks I used to give, back when conference speaking was kinda-sorta part of my job.

Sammy joined our family late in our first year in Salem, after the two elderly cats that had been with us for almost 20 years passed away. I was firmly in the “maybe another cat?” camp — and I think TheWife was too — but the kids were adamant that they wanted a dog, so off we went, to the Humane Society, and we found a brave little puppy that had been picked up off a busy commercial street in Salem (Lancaster, IYKYK…), and she ended up coming home with us.

Now, the kids went to school during the day, and TheWife went into her office, but I worked from home — so, while I might say, “the family got a dog”, really, I got a dog. She’s been a pretty constant companion for almost 14 years at this point, and on the odd occasion when I’m working in my office without her, it just feels …empty. I was thinking, recently, that she’s really my oldest Salem-specific friend — the first new person I met here, and really got to know.

Sammy has always been an interesting character — laid back when it’s just the family, fiercely protective whenever she hears a knock or a ringing doorbell, barking her head off and wagging her tail vigorously whenever somebody comes by the house. She was pretty reactive to most other dogs — probably an artifact of her early life on the streets — and we never managed to get her trained to the point where we could take her out with us in public, unfortunately.

Recently, over the last couple months, Sammy has been showing her age. She’s had periods where she refuses to eat — deeply concerning because she’s always been extremely food-oriented and motivated, willing to eat anything. She’s had various GI-related difficulties, vomiting, loose stools, that sort of thing. We’ve worked through a couple of those periods, adjusting her food, adding probiotics, wetting her kibble, and those changes have gotten her back eating. Earlier this week, however, she started leaving her bowl full again. After a couple days of that, we got an urgent care appointment at the vet on Thursday, and ended up getting an x-ray, just to rule out any sort of blockage or obstruction. The x-ray came back clear, but the vet had also taken a peek with an ultrasound wand while Sammy was sedated for the x-ray, and he reported that her gall bladder looked like it might be inflamed. We ended up getting blood work done, primarily to look at her bilirubin levels and see if they were off.

We got the blood work results back yesterday. Friends, they were not good — her bilirubin levels were okay, but her kidney-related numbers were very much not — her kidneys have basically shut down. She’s had some kidney issues in the past, but a few months ago these numbers were much closer to normal — whatever is wrong, has intensified rapidly. We discussed some treatment options with the vet — hospitalizing her for a few days so they could push a lot of fluids, that sort of thing — and in the end decided that we were just going to take her home instead. The vet said pretty clearly that the hospitalization was not likely to make any real difference, and instead of having her away from family and home, we’re going to make her as comfortable as possible for as long as possible — some appetite stimulants and anti-nausea meds to hopefully help motivate her to eat, and to keep the food down when she does eat it. The vet assured us she’s not in any pain, just feeling crummy and uncomfortable, and overall old

So, we brought her home. We’re doing what we can, and we’re waiting. Obviously, if things take a turn, we’ll help Sammy along, but for the moment, we’re giving her lots of pets and walks, letting her tell us what she needs. I suspect she’s going to decide it’s time to move on pretty soon, and then I’m going to have a Sammy-shaped hole in my life, and I’m not sure how I’m going to deal with that. Hug your loved ones, friends, whatever shape they happen to be. Enjoy them while they’re here, and while you’re here with them.