Dog Tales

So it transpired that Sam was spirited to Earth to assume the identity of a dog that, unfortunately, had the same appearance as his heavenly guise - a big chicken in a dog suit. Sam's initial experiences on Earth are unimportant. Suffice to say he ended up lost near a shopping center, there to be found by Jeannie in April of 1999.

"Oh, poor puppy. Where's your master? Did someone leave you here? Poor baby."

Her constant cooing calmed Sam as much as Sam could be calmed. There was quite a bit of energy in that chicken body, and not an ounce of meanness. Sam used his teeth for one thing - eating. He shoved his little body up against Jeannie and looked up into her kind face, his dark eyes catching the sunlight. She was ensnared as so many kind human beings had been ensnared by those looks that only dogs can manage.

When she got home and walked in the door, Rick took a long look at Sam. "That may be the ugliest dog I've ever seen. He looks like he's wearing a fur lei."

"Oh, he's not ugly! He's sweet," Jeannie said, giving the little dog a hug.

Rick knew the signs. This dog wasn't going to the pound. "Four dogs," he thought. "A new record." But true love, the love between Jeannie and her dogs, was not to be denied. And the true love between Rick and Jeannie was not to be risked over the meaningless expense of caring for four rather than three dogs.

Sam got along amazingly well with the big dogs. It was as if the larger dogs sensed that Sam's life would be brief and tolerated his frenetic behavior.

Rick and Jeannie had no clue about Sam's fate. They merely enjoyed the dog's company, and the dog returned the favor by constantly amusing the couple. Rick thought Sam looked ridiculous in normal guise until he saw Sam soaking wet. Sam emerged from a pond after his first attempt to swim with his black fur plastered to what proved to be a very small body. Except for that ruff, which stood up like black wire brush around Sam's head. "Kind of like a halo," Rick thought between guffaws. "Honey, if we cut that ruff off, we could attach it to a drill to buff the car. Or strip paint."

"Oh stop. You'll hurt his feelings. That's all right Sam. I love you. But you do look kind of stupid all wet. Come on puppy. Let's dry you off so Daddy stops laughing at you."

Sam, of course, understood none of this. But he could tell his humans were happy, so he was happy. He was so happy he squirmed and ran around in tight circles around Jeannie, his little mouth open, white teeth shining, pink tongue hanging out.

"Sam, sit!" Jeannie-human said. Sam knew sit. He sat.

"Sam, slap five!" Jeannie-human said. Sam lifted his right front paw and brought it down on her upturned palm. He didn't know why she taught him to do this. But every time he did, Jeannie-human and Rick-human would make the laugh noise, so Sam did it because it made them happy.

"What are you going to do with him when we go backpacking?" Rick asked.

"Have the Kelches feed him when they feed the cats, I guess. Sam'll stay in the back yard 'till we get back, won't you Sam?" Jeannie said, taking his black head between her hands to ruffle his ruff.

Jeannie was on her way back from the farm about two weeks later when she noticed blood in Sam's mouth. She pulled the car off the highway to look closer. Sam's entire face was black, and the blood was almost unnoticeable when it got in his fur. On closer examination, she saw a lot of blood.