#80. My 1st Dog Sam’s Story, Part 1

My 1st dog as a child was named Sam & my first dog as an adult ends up being named Sam. I first started in rescue in March of 2002 & my first foster dog was named Molly. I don’t recall exactly when Sam came into the rescue but I asked if I could foster him when Molly got adopted. Sam was named Scout at that time & was fostered by another foster mom. When Molly got her forever family about 5 weeks later I asked about fostering Scout & as told he was adopted. I fostered several more dogs & then in September I got contacted to tell me Scout was being returned & asked if I wanted to foster him. I said yes, & he came in as my 5th foster dog, his name had been changed to Champ. He needed to see a Vet shortly after he arrived as he was urinating way more than normal. Sadly that wasn’t the worst part that I found out. They took him back for a urine sample & then called me back, & told me that his stomach was so infected & she felt he may have been put in a closet & made to lay in his urine. He had sores on his belly & not much fur. I had never seen his belly with the fur it should have so I had no idea how much fur was missing. I was still quite naive before this & this started a journey that I didn’t expect to go down, but it was a learning experience that has helped me help so many other dogs. Because of his past I wasn’t going to keep his name Champ as he was treated badly under that name, minimally causing an infection. I didn’t care for the name Scout, so I made up a list of names I liked & I went with him to my backyard & started