It's been a topsy turvey year. A lot of good events, a lot of stress, and the loss of two dear pets. Don't feel like signing off with Happy Holidays anymore both personally and for the world as a whole. I just can't feel it would be a completely happy Holiday for anyone after the Asian tragedy. For me personally it is really difficult to have an elderly but healthy cat die from a freak home accident.

My eldest daughter is very upset about turning the dryer on with the cat inside. The door had been left open and Sampson thought the load of almost dry cloths was a great place to hide as he liked to do while napping. Brandy started the dryer to finish the load and stopped it when she heard a strange thunking. Sampson jumped out and ran so Brandy thought he was OK just scared. We noticed a limp a few days later and Brandy told us what happened so we weren't too concerned thinking he was just bruised. His condition continued to worsen and we took him to the vet who reassured us no bones were broken other than his tail which was most likely permanently paralyzed. One of his legs was partially paralyzed not jus sore, but the vet believed it probably would improve once swelling subsided and he put Sampson on steroids to speed his recovery. Unfortunately he continued to go down hill in what appears to have been a series of strokes. He lost the use of all his legs Christmas eve after returning home from the vet where he had been taken to treat dehydration caused by his desire to hide and do nothing else. We had discouraging reports all through Christmas weekend and were preparing to put him to sleep when he suddenly mounted a comeback Monday Morning. He became alert and friendly again and started moving his limbs although he could not situp or stand. He took a sudden turn for the worse Wednesday evening and died last night.

We lost King after the big dogs got out during the second hurricane to skirt us. He had heart worms, but was too old to treat so his death wasn't quite as hard as Sampson's, but we miss him a lot too. The were both pretty unique.

King was a large white collie with a tricolor head. He was very smart, gentle and loving. He would open any fence gate not locked. He let his mom dad and himself out one day when someone forgot to lock the gate. We found the parents who had not roamed far soon, but king still had a puppies energy and curiosity despite being middle age then. He was gone for days and we thought we'd lost him after looking all over. After a few days he just showed up looking fine. I think someone probably had decided to keep him or lock him up until they could find the owner and he pulled the same trick on them. He never challenged his dad much until his dad was getting very old and feeble despite him being bigger and his dad always being quick to put him in his place. When Prince started to get noticeably weak King was no longer willing to play the meek underling, but he didn't seek to dominate his dad. One day Prince was trying to jump on King and put him in his place and King flipped his dad in the air. After landing with a thud Prince never saught to dominate King again and King left him alone. Unfortunately Prince went downhill fast after that and he was the first pet we had to put to sleep. We are glad we did not have to make that choice with Sampson because we would have always wondered if he would have gotten better with a little more time. King always deferred to his mother who always seemed to have a soft place in her heart for her only puppy we kept. When she died King was very lonely. We got a border collie male puppy and King loved him and mothered him until we got a female mutt who was the half collie niece of King. King then played favorites, but still seemed more like a parent than alpha male. When he died the border collie Scout howled and howled for several nights in apparent mourning. Prince died at 13, and Penny and King at 10. All the collies were great with kids although King was often disconcertingly rambunctious until the last few years. He still wanted to climb in Rita's lap and be cuddled like she did when he was a puppy.

Sampson was a 12 year old siamese. He got his name because when he was a kitten he would body slam our older kitten Prissy who was twice his size. They were a funny pair often wrestling and chasing each other. Prissy was always wary though because Sampson would often approach her and lick her and show affection only to pounce and start a wrestling match after a few minutes. He loved most of the family and cried for attention, but hated strangers. He was an expert hider and you could almost never find him with strangers in the house. Alas it was that nose for snooping out hiding spaces that did him in. When my wife was pregnant with her surrogate baby Sampson started wanting to sleep on her stomache. He kept that habit even after the baby was born and became my wife's nap buddy. He would frequently meow for attention and run to the bedroom door. Meow more until someone followed him into the room. He would then jump on the bed flop down and meow for someone to join him. While napping on top of someone he would stretch out his paws and curly his toes around an arm or hand. Like King he was smarter than average and could open doors with knobs by rubbing them with his paws until they turned. He was tolerant of both Shannon and Trevor as toddlers and Shannon was one of his favorites from an early age as she was the most calm and least active as a small child.

We'll miss them both a lot as will the surviving outside dogs Scout (2) & Liberty (2), inside dogs Emilly (6) & Holly (6)
) and the cat Prissy (12).

Regards,
Mark