Sampson Meets a Whole Bunch of New Friends

More and more people are starting to approach us on our morning walks. And it has nothing to do with my stunning good looks. If you’ve seen the picture of me and Sampson you realize why more women would prefer to go out with Sampson than me. There is something about Sampson that just makes people want to get to know him. I’ve met more of my neighbors in the last few weeks than I have in the last 10 years. With the exception of dustmop’s owner, everyone is fascinated by Sampson. Sampson, of course, loves attention and is very happy to meet people. He likes them even better if I let them give him a cookie. I’ve stopped letting people give him milkbones, I carry a supply of his healthy cookies now. Between the old guys at the store, the trash guys and the school crossing guard, it was just getting out of hand. I still let the school crossing guard give him a milkbone, but that’s it.

Everyone in the neighborhood knows I own a big black Lab, so they always ask why I’m walking Sampson. When I tell them why Cheryle and I are taking care of Sampson, every single person (and I mean everyone) says something like “Tell them we’re praying for them” or “God bless them” or “Thank God we have people like that.” Or most often “Please tell them I said thank you.”

So consider the message delivered.

We ran into the baggy pants gang and I asked them if it would be OK if I took a picture of them with Sampson. They said, and I think got this right “Yo, Yo Navy, lowdown is – that’s fly, the big dude is bad” I have no idea what that meant, but I just assumed that their answer was yes. But then they walked away, so I think I need to communicate the concept of “Can I take a picture of you guys with Sampson RIGHT NOW?” We’ll have to work on that concept of time. I’m pretty sure “fly” means cool.

We take a different route every morning, starting with the school crossing guard first of course. Today Sampson seems to have quite a bit of energy and we go on a much longer walk than usual. Which takes us over past the school and up a street where there is nursing home. Actually, I think it’s more of an assisted living facility. The building has a huge front porch and there are a bunch of elderly folks sitting outside. Sampson felt this was something that needed to be investigated, much to the delight of the residents. Everyone was very excited and just adored Sampson. We stayed for almost 20 minutes. One of the little old ladies was hysterically funny, cracking jokes like crazy. I thought her best line was “When I go, I want my ashes scattered in Wal-Mart, that way I know my daughter will visit me twice a week.”

I was very proud of Sampson for making so many old folks so happy. I’m certain he made their day. I think we’ll make that a regular stop when the weather is nice. Needless to say, all the old folks made us promise to come back tomorrow. Unfortunately, I have to fly to Denver tonight for a meeting tomorrow. So Sampson will be on a different walking schedule with Cheryle. I’ll be walking him again on Wednesday morning. We’ll stop by to visit our senior citizen friends and I’ll bring some extra cookies for them to give to Sampson.