The Award Winning photo you see above is of Samuel, Affectionately known as Littlebear or Sammy. He was a 120 lb. American Akita who wandered up to my house several years ago and never left. Forget everything that you have read about Akita's for this guy was the exact opposite on Aggressiveness and temperament. A giant living teddy bear, Sammy loved nothing more that to cuddle with the nearest person and loved to sit in your lap...whether you were sitting in a chair, the seat of a car, or the floor. When he came to me as a stray, I immediately took him to the vet, only to get the response "You DO realize that he is an Akita right?" as if to say, "Watch out, because that breed is aggressive and mean." But they were wrong about Sammy and they soon fell in love with his big brown eyes and calm, sweet personality. Throughout several years he was always there to greet me when I got home, and as all Akita's, he loved to lean on me. Now, if you have ever owned an Akita, whether American or Japanese, you very well know that Leaning is a sign of affection where the Akita will lean against you or your legs and just want to be close to you. He was perfectly trained and he would sit when told, and if you forgot to tell him to get up, he would be sitting in that same spot for up to two hours. A Beloved member of the family and friend to all who came to visit, Samuel only barked if something or someone was outside the house that I needed to know about. He was not afraid to instantly put himself between me and danger and did so on many occasions, (we lived out in the country where Coyotes, Bobcats and other game ran rampant), though he never attacked. At night, he would go out into the backyard and lay with his back towards the door, watching the cattle field and tree line for danger, knowing that nothing would dare sneak up behind him. At the time Sammy showed up, I had a German shepherd mix (Possibly with Doberman and Pittbull) rescue that I had adopted from a pound a few years before, and my brother's Black Mouth Cur, as well as a full blooded Siberian Husky that we rescued. Hope, the Shepherd, had become rabid in an instant and had attacked the Cur... Before I could cross the yard to break up the fight, Samuel had gotten between the two dogs and, using his sheer weight, was forcing them apart, Sammy never used his fangs nor even bared them. He kept the shepherd from killing the Black Mouth cur until I could get there and cage the rabid shepherd (Who unfortunately had to be put down. We later found out that the shepherd had a reaction to the rabies shot which caused her to snap.)
A couple years after that incident, Apache (the Husky) who had become great and inseparable friends with Sammy, became ill and would no longer eat anything. At almost 16 years old, we had to put Apache down because age had finally taken its toll on him. Even through all this, we never even knew that Sammy was fighting Bone Cancer. Not even the vets.
We had to board the cur and Sammy at a kennel (Which they loved and the staff had grown to love them) and had received a call from the kennel that Sammy had injured his leg in the kennel. They took him to their vet and did x-rays of his leg and hip, but found nothing and the vet assumed it was a sprain. We brought him home and for about three days, he had not gotten better and even cried out in pain at the end of the third day. Then we knew something was wrong...Sammy never cried or yelped like he did then. My mother took him back down to Georgia to the vet that had treated him so long and ended up calling me at work. My husband answered the phone and then asked me to come outside, that he needed to talk to me.
I knew something was wrong. He had said that the vet did an MRI of Sammy and had found out that Bone Cancer had eaten almost all the way through one hip and halfway through the other. This would not show up on x-ray and is why the kennel's vet did not see anything. The vet said that if Sammy tried to stand up again, his hip would break. I made the heartbreaking decision immediately to have him put down (Because he had to be sedated for the MRI, the shot they gave him to put him down just made him go to sleep, he felt no pain in his final moments.) We were all heartbroken that he had been taken away from us so suddenly and unexpectedly. I knew it was the right thing to do because I know he is not hurting anymore.
Even though you are gone, LittleBear, you are forever loved by many and you will foever be in my heart.
Rest In Peace LittleBear
A couple years after that incident, Apache (the Husky) who had become great and inseparable friends with Sammy, became ill and would no longer eat anything. At almost 16 years old, we had to put Apache down because age had finally taken its toll on him. Even through all this, we never even knew that Sammy was fighting Bone Cancer. Not even the vets.
We had to board the cur and Sammy at a kennel (Which they loved and the staff had grown to love them) and had received a call from the kennel that Sammy had injured his leg in the kennel. They took him to their vet and did x-rays of his leg and hip, but found nothing and the vet assumed it was a sprain. We brought him home and for about three days, he had not gotten better and even cried out in pain at the end of the third day. Then we knew something was wrong...Sammy never cried or yelped like he did then. My mother took him back down to Georgia to the vet that had treated him so long and ended up calling me at work. My husband answered the phone and then asked me to come outside, that he needed to talk to me.
I knew something was wrong. He had said that the vet did an MRI of Sammy and had found out that Bone Cancer had eaten almost all the way through one hip and halfway through the other. This would not show up on x-ray and is why the kennel's vet did not see anything. The vet said that if Sammy tried to stand up again, his hip would break. I made the heartbreaking decision immediately to have him put down (Because he had to be sedated for the MRI, the shot they gave him to put him down just made him go to sleep, he felt no pain in his final moments.) We were all heartbroken that he had been taken away from us so suddenly and unexpectedly. I knew it was the right thing to do because I know he is not hurting anymore.
Even though you are gone, LittleBear, you are forever loved by many and you will foever be in my heart.
Rest In Peace LittleBear