Sam came into our lives one day last summer ('98). I didn't know about him then, but when the winter came and it started to get cold he started hanging around more. My brother put a box with some carpeting to keep warm outside on the porch for him to sleep in. At first we thought he was a girl and my sister named him Mable, for some strange reason. But then we realized he was a boy and I named him Sam. Pretty soon, we started letting him in the house at night, because it was so cold outside. Then we started letting him inside during the day, when our parents weren't home because they thought he was dirty and didn't want him wandering around.
Sam always got into fights, and when he came home at night, he would have scratches all over his nose. When we first found him, he had a sore on his right leg, but that healed up. He was always very dirty too, so we gave him a bath one day (see below picture). My parents decided we could keep him and so we took him to the vet to be checked out. He seemed to be in pretty good shape and he was only about 2 years old.

Then a few months ago, something tragic happened. Sam was outside for the day and my mom went out into the garage for some reason. She saw him hobbling up onto the porch in the back and he looked hurt. We found out the he had been shot with a BB gun by someone and his leg was broken. It was so awful!! The vet put a brace on his leg, hoping it would heal up in a few weeks. That was not the case. When Sam went back in for his x-ray, it was not healing. So the vet said there were only a few options. We could pay about $1000 and get a plate put on his leg, or get it amputated. We weren't about to pay $1000 for him, even though it would have been worth it, but it also wasn't guaranteed to work. So his leg was amputated.

It was very sad for everyone, but Sam is doing very well. Now we don't even notice that he only has three legs and sometimes he forgets too!!! We are very happy that Sammy is ok and we hope to have him around for a long time.

Sam after his bath, he looked really funny, but this isn't the best pic of it.