Sam is back HOME!!!

Sam, waiting for his owners to show up.

That's right, Sam (the yellow lab) is back with his original owners!
Yesterday there was a message on the phone from someone saying they thought we had their dog. Kristen called them back, and sure enough, it was his owners! We met with them last night and returned him. It's so nice that he's back with his original owners! Also, turns out his name is "Tango". The people were very nice and very happy to have him back. So exciting!
Here's the story of Sam from our end...
We found him on the way back from one of our walks to Southfarm, less than a week after Hurricane Katrina came through. He was with a white German Shepard that we weren't able to catch. We figured they were refugee dogs. We took Sam by the shelter, and they said the same thing. As soon as we could, we took him to the vet and had him updated on all his shots and de-wormed. We put an ad in the paper about him and told the vet he was a stray, and also left our info at the Humane Society. It seemed like his owner was never going to turn up. So, we started looking for a home for him. He and Zephyr were always having a great time, so we were reluctant to give him away. Then, a seemingly ideal situation surfaced, and we sent him to live with parents of one of Kristen's friends (wrote about that earlier). That didn't work out so well, and he was back with us after 2 weeks or so. We picked him up this past Sunday. Early this week, we were back to trying to find him a home, maybe even up in Maine. Then we get the call on Wednesday, and now he's back home!
And now, the story from the owner's side...
Sam ("Tango") ran off after some dog in heat (the white German shepard he was with!). They live out Oktoc Road, south of Southfarm. He didn't have his tags on because the owner had just picked him up from his parent's house. They put up posters all over their part of the area, which was well south of where we always are. They said they also informed the Humane Society and the Vet. Oddly, the people at the Humane society must have just had a brain fart, because I brought Sam in for them to look at and told them the situation. They also know us pretty well, because one of Kristen's friends works there. Same at the Vet. Told them he was a stray... Anywho, Some day recently, someone at the Vet's office finally realized that the dog someone had reported just might be the one we'd found, and called those people. Later the same day, Sam was back home.
Another interesting thing... about a month after we got Sam, we were coming back from our morning walk, and came across that white German shepard again, this time she was with another dog. The other dog was also one of theirs! They found that one a lot quicker though.
So, Sam ("Tango") is back with his original owners, we don't have to find a home for him, we learned two dogs is too much for us, and everything is super. The owners also reimbursed us for the money we spent on him.
One more thing... we had had an appointment for Sam to get neutered, which we cancelled because he'd moved down to that other place (parents of Kristen's friend). They'd made an appointment for him to get neutered too, but also had to cancel, because he came back with us. Sam's family jewels have to be the luckiest in dog history! His owners didn't neuter him because it messes with his hunting instinct. He was used as a retriever, and very good at it, as we saw.
So that's that. Couldn't have worked out better. :)

So long Sam...