Holli Rausch

No, I’m not talking about the Dominican, former Cubs’ right-fielder. Sammy Sosa, my friends, is a beagle, our family dog. We bought him from a veterinarian who breeds his beagles, when I was in 3rd grade. He was just a little puppy, probably not even 2 months old. He was adorable, and my parents chose him because he came up to my dad and untied his shoes. On the drive home, we thought of names, and since my family’s baseball team is the Cubs, it was decided on Sammy Sosa. We call him Sam.

Sam was a good puppy. He loved us, we loved him, he was scared of his reflection in the dishwasher, he climbed on my mom’s shoulder like a bird would. He was fun to take care of. Our first sign of trouble was probably within a year or two of having him. Sam was a hunting beagle (we don’t hunt) so he is very large for any beagles most of you have seen, and he has an instinct to kill. ( ! ) Adam let Sam out to do his business, and when I saw Adam next, he was the saddest I had ever seen him. Apparently when Sam was let out, he caught sight of some baby rabbits running away and took off after them. And committed homocide. That was about 8 years ago. Ever since that incident, we’ve always been careful when we let him outside so that something like that wouldn’t happen again. He’d chase the occasional bird, but nothing as horrific occurred. He eventually kept getting fatter and smellier. Sometimes so smelly that I can’t stand to be in the same room with him. I often tell him how smelly he is. And he sheds, so his hair is everywhere.

Jump ahead with me to Spring of 2005. I receive an email from my parents that said Sam had been hit by a car. Turns out, Sam was let outside to do his business and found something to chase. He followed it across the road and didn’t check both ways. Left, right, left. Walk. BAM! Cop car. Sam broke his leg, and didn’t get his prey. He had to walk with a cast on for what seemed like forever. I made fun of him in my head, because he smells. But it was a sad sight. He still has a problem with walking on that leg.

Jump ahead with me to January of 2006. I had just returned from a nice vacation with friends in Florida. I planned to sleep in until 10:00. I hear Mom’s voice at 7:12. She’s outside my window yelling, “Sam! SAAAMM!” Knock it off. “SAAAMMMM! Get over here, right now!” Stop it, please. “SAM!” Eventually I hear the jingle of his collar and he’s inside the house. I also hear muffled voices that sound similar to, “Bad dog! You’re a bad dog.” Smells too. I couldn’t sleep past 8:30. Now, the same day mind you, I’m in bed near 11:00 PM. I can’t sleep because I had a lot on my mind and couldn’t shut it off. Near midnight, I must have been starting to doze off because I wake up to the sound of Adam’s voice outside my window. “GET OVER HERE!” Not again. “SAM! *clap clap*” Is he applauding Sam? Can’t be. “Sam! Get over here, right NOW! …*clap*” I just want to fall asleep. “*jingle jingle jingle* Here I am, Adam. I thought we were playing hide and go seek and you were just trying to make me give up! Sorry about the confusion.” Finally, sleep. I’m not talking to Sam this morning, he gets the cold shoulder from me.

On the up side, I will be gone from Sam until Saturday. I leave this afternoon to visit Miles in Madison. It will be great to see him again, and I’m sure we’ll have a fun time. We will visit Holly and Bob sometime tonight. I will be at Miles’ until tomorrow morning, where I will head to Brookings for an interview with the Daktronics’ Sports Marketing department. Then from there, I will be going to Spirit Lake for a camp staff reunion. It should be a great weekend. I’m sure I’ll have some things to blog about when I return.

OK, bye bye!