I love my dog. He is a pooch with a thousand different ever changing names. Stinkbutt, boy, snugglebug, little man, monkey and monster man just to name a few. He's our boy and despite that fact that he can be an a$hole sometimes he has made us very happy.
When Lenny and I moved in to our first apartment without roommates we knew we wanted a dog. Well at least I did, he wasn't quite so ready. I would spend hours searching for pooches on pet finder. Sometimes Danielle would help and we would sit there together and make all those girl noises you hear when something is just too cute for words. We were in our apartment for two months when we brought him home. I think I like Sams story better then our proposal story.
It was a warm Sunday in October (10/16/05 to be exact) when Brandon and Danielle asked if we wanted to go to Target with them. Sure, why not? The Target in Toms River has a Petco next to it and it just so happened to be adoption Sunday. We did our shopping and Danielle and I told the boys we were going to look. Danielle and Brandon already had Charlie. Lenny made me promise we would not bring home a dog, he still wasn't ready. I promised. So Danielle and I wandered over and were looking at all the pups. We noticed two that were walking together. One was a puppy still black and white, lab-pit mix. And the other was a year old Jack Russell mix named Snoopy. I wanted the puppy. Lenny comes by and the before I can point to the want I liked Snoopy made a bee line for Lenny and it was all over from there. It was Lenny who changed his mind and wanted Snoopy. So we discussed it and applied for him. We were under the impression that we had to wait for our application to be approved so we left. We were a block away when they called us and told us we could bring him home right now! We turned back and brought our boy home. 
The car ride home was filled is suggestions for a new name. He didn't look like a Snoopy. Samson was his new name. I know there were so many names we tossed around on the ride home but I don't really remember them. I know Samson is the one we picked. It was until a few weeks later that I learned why his name was Snoopy to begin with...he is so nosey! He tries to get into everything! The first thing we did when we brought him home was introduced him to Charlie. Sam saw Charlie and wanted to let Charlie know we belonged to him so he peed on me lol! A few months later he fell in love with Danielle and peed on her too!
Charlie and Sam became best friends. They enjoyed going for walks in the woods and wrestling and getting muddy together. Once in a while they would even snuggle a little together. However much fun running in the woods behind Silver Ridge was it had it's fair share of bad times. Both of them have been to the vet to have cuts on their pads cleaned and bandaged at least once. Even with Frontline sometimes you have to pull a tick or two off. 
The following year we took Sam camping in Lake George, it was the first camping trip for both of them, It was the same camping trip where Lenny proposed. It was cold though! Sam is not a fan of being cold. All he wanted to do was snuggle and he was not picky about who it was. As much as a pain in the butt that he can be sometimes, he is still the sweetest boy and you can't help but to love him. A few years later we moved into our first house. I was so happy that he hard a yard that he could run in without a leash. He did have a learning curve though. The first our second night he was running around and was so excited he forgot about the sliding door and ran into, twice. It is funny now but the God awful sound of his head hitting that door made my heart drop. He was always exploring the yard. Wanted to be friends with the cat that hung around outside. The cat didn't feel the same way and swipe Sam right across the nose. The amount of blood that poured off his face...another scary moment. He also got sprayed but a skunk...twice. Within a few days of each other. He didn't learn and we had to watch him when he was outside at night for a few weeks before the skunk just stopped coming around. Skunk spray stinks like I can't even begin to explain. You have to move fast...really, really fast to get that smell off. baking soda and peroxide was what I found on the interweb for cleaning. But when I mixed it together I felt hot so I just went with the baking soda I think. Even after he was clean there was a little fragrance of skunk on his nose that you could smell if you got close enough.
From the moment he jumped on Lenny in that parking lot our lives have never been the same and in a good way. He has filled our lives with unconditional love. It doesn't matter what trouble he gets into, you can never stay mad at him. All he wants is to love you and be with you. He's goofy and happy and lazy and cuddly. Even at the worst moments in our life he is there, content to just sit with you. He was there for me to cry on when my aunt passed away. He was there a few years later when my parents put Shadow down. And recently when Vinnie passed away. He's been there through every negative test I have ever taken. He is our best friend and our boy. And he saves us. At our darkest moments he is there.
