Hi, I am Samson's mom and also mom to three cats. Since cat info is handled incredibly well by Prysma-Kitteh ( and this is her blog site) I will deal with dog stuff unless it relates to dog/cat interactions. Also, I am not a professional or even a talented amateur so this isn't meant to replace the valuable importance of a Veterinarian or Vet techs !!!

Samson is a rescue puppy, gotten from a no-kill shelter in another state. We found him when I was surfing the net; specifically the Petfinder.Com website. There are some important things involved with adopting from a website especially from another state, but the things aren't insurmountable and they are well worth the time.

With Petfinder.com you enter information such as dog/cat, breed, size, age, etc. You enter your postal code/Zip code and the site starts with the closest participating shelter and then outwards depending on distance. Now if you want a specific breed, it is much harder to find, and may work best to look for a specific breed rescue. If you are willing to have a mixed breed, which we preferred, then a shelter is the place to go; and a no-kill shelter is always the best way to go if you can.

I saw Samson on the website along with his brother. There was a short description of known information, in this case we were lucky since the breeds involved were known as well as age. With most adoptions you don't know the breed(s) involved and so really have no way of predicting characteristics. Decide whether you need certain characteristics or can't have certain ones and decide accordingly how to handle the decision of dog.

It is important to get as much information as possible because falling in love with a picture is much different that making the ultimate decision to adopt and traveling to pick up the dog can be tiring and you can take a dog thats not really suitable for you and your family environment.