Sammi & Sydney

Sammie is the brindle, Sydney is the fawn

Beloved Mickey ( 1999-2009)

Sent: Thursday, July 02, 2009
Subject: Sammi

Hi Fredericka/Lucy,

I am writing you to let you know that Sammie is doing very well. (Dixie is her mother) She is almost as tall as Sydney, our other female mastiff …will be 3 years old this July. As I told you before we have a nearly blind/almost deaf/ and slightly crippled German shepherd. who is 12 years old. Our German shepherd (Grizzly) fell into our in ground pool and was drowning. (we now have the fence completely up).

We were unaware that he had fallen in, Sydney barked and barked until my daughter came out. of the house. She realized that Sydney was staring directly into the pool, she then pulled out the dog and he survived. Sydney does not bark unless there is something around or we have company. I don’t think I could have taken it if the dog would have drowned in our pool. That happened on last Sunday. The Thursday before that a coyote killed my 11 pound male Peke-a-poo. I am devastated beyond belief. Sadly, the mastiff was not around when this happened. I will never own another small dog where we live, I can barely get over this loss. I still have another 9 pound female who is the sister to Mickey, my dog that was killed. That Thursday night, Sydney was lying on the deck looking out into the field, I know she was wondering where Mickey was. We could tell she was sad, and she moped around for a while. She knew something was wrong I am sure. In the spring she had chased a coyote out of our yard, We have 6 acres but we are surrounded by 100 acres of pasture /cornfields /cows. My little male always thought he was a Rottweiller and was always taking off, and I had to find him. On my way to work at 3:30 in the morning, I let all the dogs out and put them in before I left.

Mickey took off for the fields ( we assumed later). He would hide from us any time he decided he didn’t want to come in. I cant tell you the tremendous guilt I have for the loss of my little dog. One of the great things about our Mastiffs, is they rarely stray very far at all from the house. Every morning when I left for work Sydney would run towards the barn with her tail and hair up, growling. I would call all the dogs in, thinking it was just a raccoon. Now, I know that coyote had been stalking out our little dogs and had been waiting along. I did not know much about coyote behaviors until recently. I have only lived out in the country for 2 years now.

On a lighter note, Sammie makes us laugh all the time. She has not yet grown into her “hoofs” (as our vet calls her paws.) She runs flat footed across the wood floors and it is the funniest thing you have ever seen. She still tags along with Sydney, like she is her mother. Sydney is gentle and tolerant of her, then like most mothers she will tire of the play and give her the warning.. Sammie just trots off and will flop down on the floor to pout!! Then it will start all over again, later. She is so funny and has a lot of personality. We love them both very much.

Take care.
Crenah

Sent: Sunday, March 21, 2010
Subject: Re: Sammi/Syndey

Hi Fredericka,

We wanted you to know how much we love our two mastiffs. Sammi is our Brindle Mastiff who is 1 year old, she presently weighs 110. Syndey is our fawn mastiff who weighs 175, she is 4 years old this year.

Syndey the older Mastiff is very protective of us and the other dogs. Last year we put an inground pool in, before the fence was put up our blind 12 1/2 year old German Shepherd fell into the deep end of the pool. Syndey started barking and looking toward our back door. My daughter who is 15 went out to see what she was barking at and jumped in and pulled the shepherd out, he is ok. The fence is entirely up.. so no more mishaps with the pool.

Last summer, I lost my little white male dog to a coyote. It has been a heart wrenching experience for us. Two months ago, Syndey and Sammie were out playing (we are very rural), once again a coyote attacked this time our fawn Mastiff, she only had a little chunk taken out of her back hind quarters. She fought the coyote, and Sammie ran back to the house. So, I believe once again she saved yet another dog.

I am trying to let everyone know so they don’t have to go through what I did with my little beloved dog, Mickey ( 1999-2009)

Crenah, Mark, Katie