Sam's Story

by Pat Honeysett, May 2006

Sam

Hellooooo! My name is Sam Augustus Honeysett, and I'm speaking from my celestial cloud in Doggie Heaven. I just want to tell you about my life on earth, way back in the 60's.

I was born under the Bush Nursing Hospital at Barham Koondrook. Although she never told me, I think my biological mother was dumped, lost or frightened when she became pregnant. You see, a couple of months before I was born, the Annual Duck Season was in progress, and my Mum was a curly haired Retriever. Her job was to retrieve gunned down ducks from the river and dams. She hated it because the noise of the guns really hurt her ears. However, after she had me plus all my siblings, the staff at the hospital looked after all of us. We were fed, feted, housed and well cared for, until it became time for us all to leave.

My new mum took me home to Melbourne. I was a bit scared at first, seeing trams, screaming ambulances, fire and police cars.... and so many people. However I soon settled down and joined the Southern Dogs Obedience Club. I think it was held in a ground offHeatherton Road, way over Springvale Road. It was really good fun.

The Instructors put a bucket and spade in the middle of each class for "potty-training". We were taught to walk properly with our owner's, learned to sit whenever we came to the end of the footpath before crossing the road and all that stuff related to OBEDIENCE! Of course, I went just one step further. One day at school, when my class was doing "off lead" exercises, I had this overwhelming urge. I took off like a rocket. My mother was mildly hysterical, yelling "Sam! Sam! Heel! Heel!" There was no way I could obey at the time. I ran around that perfectly placed bucket three times, crouched over it and soon felt much relieved! Little did I