This past week, my mom turned the big 5-0! She is the baby of the family, so the family felt inclined to do something. I started by on the 9th by a surprise party I set up for her at Dave and Busters. Sammy was all excited because some family came into town and came over to see my digs (cause it was new to them) and that meant lots of attention and from new people! He loves company!
Shortly after the first surprise, we got rid of the tree and I had the worst week ever, so Sammy wasn't as confident as usual. Not quite as bouncy. My cousins that were not able to make it on the Dave and Busters date came into town this past weekend to do another surprise for my mom's birthday. They came into town on Friday, so Sammy and I paced and paced waiting for Erik to hurry up and get off work so we could go to the hotel and see them. Yes, I snuck Sammy in the hotel! He wanted to see his cousins! He really did.
They stayed in Fremont because the surprise was to be held at my Aunt and Uncle's house in Arlington, NE (little, itty bitty, teeny, tiny town that didn't have it's own hotel). After Erik finally got off work, the 3 of us piled in the car and navigated through the crazy fog and to the hotel. Boy was Sammy the happiest puppy! I don't know how much he remembers, if at all, my cousins, but he just loved them! My cousins were in town the day after Erik and I brought Sammy home, and he went to my cousin's 6th birthday party. He may have been a little distracted with knowing me less than 24 hrs and being crazy ADD pup at the time.
....Maybe I should explain that, to those who don't know Sammy's roots. In August of 2009, Erik and I were moving to a new apartment. Erik loves fish. We needed to get bags to move them to the new place and lived right down the street from a petshop. We had been discussing getting a puppy, and was on our list of priorities for finding a new place. I wanted a basset hound, but they exceeded the 40 lb. limit of our new home, Fox Run Apartments. Erik wanted a corgi, all because some silly anime. Because it was an anime, I wasn't very receptive. Well, they had this corgi puppy sitting all by himself, looking so sad and sleepy, and TOO big for his little 1'X2' crate, that didn't even have a bottom! It was like a fence thing so their bathroom would just fall right through. I said, "Ok, you really want one, so lets look at this little guy just so I can see what they are like." We asked, and they put us in a room with the little corgi and the guy told us he was a great pup, one of the best. I was off the seat in a second, on the floor, he walked right over to me and gave me a kiss on the nose! I was a goner. I think at that very moment Erik began crunching numbers. This little guy was a clearance puppy. He was born in early April, and had been there since either late April, or early May, can't remember now. Point is, he had been in that dumb little crate way, way, way too long. He hadn't gone outside, wasn't able to run or anything. All he had was a water bottle and a little fleece blanket. We were at that pet store awhile calculating everything and long story short, we got him and the free travel bags for the fish. Trouble was, we were moving the very next day. We talked to the people there and they were willing to keep him there overnight and even the next night, we just had to pay for him now. It was very hard to give him back and try to explain to him that we were coming back and his whole world would be different! The next day was moving day and all I thought about was Sammy! It was the hottest day of the year, we moved to 3rd floor, didn't matter, I was superwoman moving mattresses, couches, books...everything just to get to my pup faster. I was determined to get him that day! And...we did! We went back and grabbed him and brought him home to the chaos! When we got him we found out that he had hip displacia and some loose joints from not being able to move about. However, it didn't stop him from looking like a kid in a candy shop once we hit outside! He bounded about because he hadn't done that before! Sammy smelled all the grass and chased the bugs. It was wonderful. By the time we made up it up the stairs (all 42, I counted), Sammy getting a lift, he was too exhausted from all the activity that he had to take a long nap! Everything wore him out for the first couple weeks. Our first full day having him, or the day after the move and bringing him home, was my cousin's 6th birthday party at my grandparents, and so I brought him. It was alot of excitement and not at all what he had ever dreamed of, but he adapted very well! He loved the little kids!
This past weekend was the first time he had seen them since, so I'm not sure he remembered, but he still loved the kids. He wanted to play with them and greet everyone! My youngest cousin, I think tripped, but ended up crying and sitting on her mom's lap. This was too much for Sammy. He tried to jump up and see that she was ok! He ended up standed along the bed with his paws on top and feet on the floor watching her until she stopped crying! He is so sweet. Sammy was very gentle as everyone ate, begged a little but not too bad. He ended up being able to jump on and off the bed. Quite the feat for him since our bed is on risers and much too tall for that! But he was proud. By the end, he was fine just sitting and trying to understand what everyone was saying. Once we got home, he was out like a light.
Saturday was the big party and he stayed home for that, but then we grabbed him and took him out to the hotel with us. My mom was on grandpup duty while we all swam. I had given her our camera and I guess Sammy couldn't let it go! She pulled it out and he just sniffed and sniffed and licked the camera. Then she pulled out hers and he sniffed, and then done. Oh, I just thought that was the cutest thing!
Sunday we had my cousins over. My cousin and her husband have three kids (12, 6, 4) and I refer to them all as my cousins. Erik has all the hippest video game stuff and so that's what we did for a couple hours. We had guitar hero in the bedroom and mario kart (with the wii steering wheel) in the living room. Sammy went back and forth, back and forth, back and forth trying not to miss a thing! After a little while, the youngest found my photo albums and we looked at old photos. Sammy laid on the ground between the two of us and just listened. I tell ya, Erik and I have a very mature little pup! He is facinated by the youngest, probably because she is the smallest. Just loves her to pieces!
After everyone left, we had a movie marathon the rest of the day. Sammy rarely looks as happy as he did then! He slept with a smile on his face. Happy to have had all the excitement, but so much happier it was just the three of us being lazy watching movies, eating popcorn! Then he slept all night through! I tell ya, it must be hard to be a puppy and involved in all these surprises!
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