After last Friday’s post went live I headed home, because I received word that in the evening, we would be saying farewell to our family dog of 17 years, Sam. My sister adopted him after his first owners gave him up to a rescue shelter with injuries they could not afford to tend after he was hit by a car. My sister and mother gave him a safe home where he healed up and lived a full, healthy, and well-loved life.
That night I was talking with my sister about some of the photos she took of him on the beach at the Outer Banks in North Carolina. Next to that hung a photo of him from one of our annual Orthodox Easter trips to the Altoona area in the Appalachians. It made me start to think that for a dog from North Philadelphia, he ended up getting to see a couple good places in his life.
That made me think, I should use my Where I’ve Visited map for Sam. Clearly, he never lived in Chicago. Nor did he travel for work to Texas and St. Louis. Nor a bachelor’s party trip to Las Vegas.
And to be clear, I cannot say for certain these are all the places he ever visited. But even if he travelled to a few more counties in the Philadelphia area, this is still a pretty good map for a dog.
Sam was a good dog. I’m glad he got to see the ocean—even if it terrified him—and the mountains. That he got to play in field and forest.
He will be missed. RIP, Sam (2009–2026).
Credit for the piece is mine.