MondayLunchCrew

Sam, beloved companion pet of the Yan family for the last 16 years, passed away on Friday February 16th. She was a Yorkshire Terrier with mostly silver hair instead of the breed standard black and tan. In many ways she was not breed standard, but to us, she was perfectly lovely.

She spent most of her time indoors and in the last ten years she was a constant companion to my father in his retirement. She was in great health up until the end.

While she liked to snack at all times, she managed to maintain her girlish figure never weighing more than 5 lbs. She was all sass and attitude to make up for her small size. Her bark was always bigger than her bite. She guarded the house fiercely but was always warm and pleasant with those she liked. Like most household pets, she never played with other dogs and always thought she was one of the humans. In fact, when in the past year she was often placed in the same room with another dog; she barely knew what to do and was scared out of her wits. But around humans, she was always able to wrap them around her little paws.

Unlike most Yorkies, she was just about never seen or has been photographed with a bow in her hair. She hated to wear anything and would be willing to knot it up so bad in her fur that she must have it cut off. She hated to wear clothes but that didn’t matter too much since she was hardly ever outside. She got her exercises from running around the house.

Each year for Christmas, she got a special Christmas meal and enjoyed a helping of turkey with gravy and vegetables. To prevent her from eating it all in one gulp without swallowing. We took to sometimes feeding it to her on a spoon or fork one bit at a time. She licked the gravy off the bottom of the plate. You can tell it’s her favorite meal.

On the rare occasion, I would take a nap, if I found an afternoon when I’m tired and Sam was willing to nap with me. I would lie on the sofa and she would curl up on my chest and we would sleep under the throw for a while. It was always so comforting to feel and hear another breath, She made it such a more pleasant sleep. Sam’s the only dog that could do that. Any bigger a dog and I’d have trouble breathing and some other dog would be too interested in licking your face to let you nap anyhow. This other dog will remain unnamed to protect the innocent.

Technically, Sam is not allowed upstairs of the house. She can roam downstairs and in the basement, but the bedrooms upstairs were off-limits. But of course, Sam had other ideas about this rule. And really, it’s her house and not yours since she spends all day in it and you go off to school and work. But she did try to make pretend that she listens to you for your own self esteem. We suspected for a while that during the day when we are away, she would head upstairs and sleep on the comforters. After all, sometimes you came home to your perfectly made bed and there was an imprint of a dog on your silk comforter. She didn’t sled, so, only the residual heat (since silk insulates so well) was your only clue. Alas, we had no spy cameras.

But, one day, she must have been in extra deep sleep. When we opened the front door of the house and saw Sam, half way down the stairs, one paw on the lower stair, the rest of her on one step up higher, looking at us with bed face (the dog version of bed head when you have hair all over your face). We caught her in the act of trying to get down the stairs before the door was open. She looked guilty for a moment before she decided to greet us as if nothing has happened. It wasn’t long before she gave up the pretense and started heading up stairs at all hours of the day whenever she wanted. Once the family figured that she spent most of the time at home anyway, it was hard to maintain the argument of that she shouldn’t have run of the house. Technically, it was quickly adding up that she had more seniority than all of us anyway due to her advance age in dog years. We of course, had to give her the proper respect as an elder.

Sam was a skilled and picky eater, in her old age, her teeth was mostly decayed and she did not enjoy as many foods as she used to. But in her youth Sam would eat grapes and spit out the seeds and the peel. She would eat whole peanuts and leave the shell and that skin that covers the peanut. We of course, should have known she’d be a skilled eater when at the tender age of less than 16 weeks, she picked out only her Iams out of a bowl of food where we mixed in the Science Diet sample. Let’s just say we got the message and she only ate Iams from then on until into her senior years. She liked apples, carrot and tomatoes and turned her nose at bananas. Mushrooms makes her throw up and she would not let you eat any cheese or ice cream without giving her, her share. Oh, and let’s not talk about bread! Yes, she was quite the begger at the dinner table with the nudges, and if you didn’t get the hint, a scratch or two.

Sam loved to greet guests and has a particular fondness for eating makeup. She had no trouble jumping around on and off the sofa; the back of the sofa; the arms of the sofa. Many unsuspecting guests who thought they were safe on the couch were often surprised by a lick on the face. From her, I thought all dogs jumped; and puppies will always jump over any fencing you put up by the third night. Turns out, that actually isn’t the case. The previously mentioned above unnamed other dog can’t jump worth shit and sometimes has trouble clearing a curb even when she psyched her self up for it. Either Sam was extraordinarily good at jumping or … well, the other one just sucks at it. I’m going to guess that in this case, both scenarios are true. It could also be that she was named SAM which also stands for Surface to Air Missile.

Sam slept in the Sphinx position with her face between her two front paws until when in her later years her bones ached did she started to sleep on her sides and snoring. Again, I thought all dogs did that until we observed Unnamed Other Dog do it from day one.

Sam was able to listen to two dialects of Chinese, English and has some facility for French. We know this because when you told her it’s bedtime (in any language previously mentioned), she would go and sleep in her crate. However, she was only responsive to her liking. She used to come to you at the come command, but in her last years, she preferred the Mandarin version: Lai Lai Lai.

With her very respectable language skills, you might be inclined to think she would do lots of tricks. But she never attended school formally and only mastered Stay, Sit, Down, and Dance. She was more the stay at home with family type and did not want to pursue a career and higher education.

She was a good dog who lived a long life and was much loved. These are just some of my favorites of the many memories I have of Sam.

Thank you for reading about her. She’ll always have a place in my heart. Please go and give the pet in your life some extra hugs and kisses. Unnamed Other Dog has been getting lots of those.

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