Linda Satterfield was generous enough to let me have Sam for his final days. We hoped that he might be able to father pups out our our female Tessa. Unfortunately it did not happen. Instead Sam spent his last days on our farm helping us feed horses, gather cows and train cutting horses. He always asked if he was doing what was right. If he was making an incorrect move, he was always ready to learn how to make it right.
He never complained and tried to get along with all the rest of the dogs. At nine years of age, he could jump into a wagon stacked 3 hay bales high and balance on the top bale. He would drop down and “shepherd crawl” around the cows. We saw nothing that would indicate that he was in any way impaired in his movement.
Sam began to go down shortly before Christmas – and was diagnosed as having kidney failure. Still every day, Sam would come to the arena and help work the cows however he could. Some days he would hold a corner. When that got too much, he would come and lay in the middle of pen and bark at the cows if they tried to escape past him.
Sam did not want to die. He fought hard and would not give up. I would be proud for someone to say that I had as much kindness, generous, willingness and heart as Sam had. Sam and I worked hard to overcome his condition. The day Foothill Sam died was the day the breed lost one of the great ones. He is a dog I will never forget.