Sammy, The Lovable Pig

I'm neither a cat nor a dog person. I am an animal person. Cats, dogs, birds, fish, horses, goats, rabbits, ponies ... you name it, I've cleaned up after it. I think that each person at some point in their lives has THEIR animal. My mom was closest to a cat we had. My dad had his dog. My sister had Samson.

Ahhh Samson. It was obvious when she started doing research after giving up her bulldog that my sister was gonna get another "drool-based" dog. She has a thing for jowls, I guess. And she's trusting enough that when breeders reassure her "oh but this animal doesn't drool anymore", she actually believes them.

God, the shoelaces ... the utter slime ... the MILES of goo that came from this animal was just endless. If there was a surface nearby and he had just had water, that surface was GONNA have LAKES of ... glop. And while I can clean up hot cat vomit without gagging, I don't deal well with ... mouth-snot.

But kind? Patient? Mellow? Even when my nieces would use Sammy's tail as a handle and have him drag them down the hall, it never occurred to him to snap or growl or even glance sideways at 'em. He was 180 pounds of pure love.

Was. This past month, the decision that had been dreaded for so long finally needed to be made. And because my sister and I *always* had animals, she was able to make the right call at the right time. All that remains now are the questions from my nieces ... "But WHERE did he go?" and "When can we visit him?" and "Did Sammy have Swine Flu?"

Yeah - my sister was ready for all the questions ... except for that one. "Uh - hunny? Why do you ask that?"

"Well", says daughter #1, "'cause sometimes when he'd shake his head and sling his spit all over, you'd call him a lovable pig."

(As the aunt observing this, can I just say that I looooooove that my nieces are already smarter than their mom?)