Dear American Black and Tan Coon Hound Rescue Staff, Volunteer Workers, Foster Parents, and Adoptive Parents;
Sammy the Wonder Dog and I sincerely want to wish all of you a very enjoyable and fun filled Christmas. Also, a New Year filled with God's blessings and needed care.
And great health and strength to carry on your work in finding good and caring homes for your great hound dogs that need them.
Sammy, former Conway, is doing great and now hitting the scales at about 85 pounds. He is a great, noble, and loyal hound dog to me and my friends, for sure. He does not like to hunt, nor be around the use of a gun, The reason some sad person had left him in the woods of West Virginia to shift for himself. Fortunately some farmer by the name of Sampson, found him in said woods on his farm property and brought him to the attention and care of you great folks at the American Black and Tan Coon Hound Rescue League, based in Canton, OH.
Sammy, alias Conway, was placed on a great foster care farm in Woodlawn, where an English foster care family, Lisa and Ron Smythe, had been commissioned by your fine rescue league to care for him. And what a fined job they did of it, for 2 years, until I came along and adopted him. He was happy as a flea when I met them, well fed, and had the run of a well kept and organized hobby farm (with over a 120 farm animals and dogs and cats). Sammy had been cared for and protected by the Smythes for 2 years because the 7 or so possible foster parents who came to see him, turned him down. Either because he was missing a lower incisor which had had to be removed as birth defect, or because they knew he would not hunt. Sniff.
And........................that was exactly the kind of hound dog I wanted!!!!! A hound that was happy, very friendly, not wanting to kill, and just be a loyal and faithful companion. A hound dog that had been abandoned, on his own, needing someone to care for and love him. And that, is exactly what I found, and got. What a great companion dog. Sleeps about 20 hours a day, loves to eat, loves to ride in the Chevy pick-up truck (which he uses to nap in during the day as an outdoor dog house), and to just be with me. He is a house dog, but also has an indoor/outdoor doggy door where he goes in and out anytime he wants to do his business and play in the large, enclosed/fenced in, North Carolina mountains yard. When he barks, he bays, but only for about 10 seconds a bay. And, barks only about 4 times a month. A very classy, quiet, and well mannered dog.
I am not much on lap type yappers or dogs that want to run around all the time. Or dogs that get out and run away from you the faster you try to catch them. I want a dog that is a hound and that is loyal, lazy, social, loves people, and who is a companion. I had just lost a great Black and Tan, Jake, 3 days before I found Ms. Jayne Schlegel and you folks in Canton, OH. I had also had one named Duke. Both sadly went on back to God. So the 2nd. day that Jake was gone, I woke up and said it was not right for me to live in a small 600 sq. ft. cabin in the mountains of North Carolina and not share it with some living thing that needed a home. So with the help of American Black and Tan Rescue, Sammy was located for me, (some 90 miles from where I live in Black Mountain, NC), and we were put together in just 3 days. Woodland, VA is just some 40 miles over the northern border of NC, near the NC town, Mount Airy, NC, where the Andy Griffin Show was based on. I drove up there to see him and get him if it looked like we were meant for each other.
I gave your Application Director, Mrs. Jayne Schlegel, the requested and filled out application, 3 selections of hounds I preferred, along with my living situation and the reason and type of hound I wanted, and needed. The ones I chose were a Black and Tan older hound in the mountains of Colorado, a middle age, show dog type, Black and Tan in Dallas, TX., and ol' Sammy, about 2 years old in Virginia and left in the woods orphan. Mrs. Schlegel immediately contacted me. She then informed me that she thought, with the information that I had given her, Sammy was by far the best choice, for him, and for me, adoption wise. She thought the Black and Tan older dog in Colorado needed to be adopted by someone in the Colorado woods area where the hound had grown up and loved to hunt bear. She thought the show dog pretty boy in Dallas would have no trouble whatever finding a home in TX. And...........that Sambo the Rambo, then know as Conway, would be just perfect for me, and for him. And was she so correct. We hit it off immediately when I went to see him in VA, and were on our back to the mountains of NC in about 2 hours after going around and seeing all the animals on the great hobby farm of the loving Smythes.
The only sad part Sammy has had to endure since then (for nothing is perfect or totally free of sacrifices, is it?) is having to do without the exciting hobby farm life and all the animals there. But he has been compensated for it by indoor living, good home cooking (as you can tell), and the full time attention of someone who loves him dearly. So gains and loses, as in all our lives. Sniff.
Sammy and I have been together since Spring of 2011. We visit Jake's grave and remember him always. We go to see Duke who lives on a 160 farm of a friend's in Old Fort, NC. where he enjoys hunting and farming with 2 other hounds. And we all have gone with life as we all have to. Harming no one or causing any living thing any pain. I am a retired social worker and ol' Sammy the Whammy helps me with the yard work, the Internet, taking care of the cabin, extensive reading, and driving the pick-up truck. We enjoy life and are so grateful for all that we have, especially each other. We do not everything, but certainly more than enough to get by.
We sincerely thank all of you staff workers and foster care folks who make it possible for these great hound dogs to have new homes when they are no longer wanted or can longer be cared for by those who do want them. Keep up the good work kids! God will repay you, TEN FOLD.
And may all of you, including all of you great and unselfish hound adopting parents, have a most enjoyable and blessed Christmas and New Year, also.
God Bless, and Gratefully Yours;
Sammy and his Doggy Daddy, Jay Huck
Black Mountain, NC
