Here are the two stories of Sam, one while he was alive and a member of our family and the other after he had passed on. This is a true story which occurred just a few years ago in the Lewisporte area and is written by Ron Chaulk.

Sam, our beloved retriever, was chosen (as a puppy) by my grandson Jamie about 10-12 years ago. He was part Labrador retriever and part Newfoundland dog. When Sam was about a year old, we used to take him to our cabin on Thwart Island and I would drop him off at Jamie's place after we returned from the cabin. I would also sometimes take Sam in the woods with me, he loved that.

One day I remember taking Sam back to Jamie's home in the back of the truck. After I had let him out and while several of us were there, talking, we suddenly looked around and Sam had seemingly disappeared. Telling my grandson that Sam couldn'€™t be far and would be back shortly, I moved toward the truck and opened the door to get in. There was Sam, crawled in under the steering wheel, trying to hide. Next day I told Jamie that I was going out to try and catch a few sea trout and I wondered if I could take Sam along. Jamie replied, "Pop, you have Sam more than I do. If you wants Sam that bad, you can keep him." That was all I wanted to hear and from that day onward, Sam was mine.

Our Sam was a big boy, weighing approximately eighty pounds with long hair. We have been going to that cabin on Thwart Island for approximately 25 years. We live in Lewisporte and I keep my boat at Stanhope. Thwart Island is in Notre Dame Bay about 25 km west of Exploits Island. It is 3 km long and there are various wildlife like moose, rabbits, squirrels, ect. found on Thwart Island.

Sam loved to play ball or Frisbee games and of course he really loved the water. I remember one weekend when we were out on the Island and doing some repairs on our wharf. The end of boards we would saw off and most often they would drop into the water. Sam would pick up each board-end and bring it ashore. By the time we had finished for the day, Sam had a big pile of boards lying on the beach.

Another weekend, we were out to the cabin and a really big storm came up with hurricane winds and rain pounding the wharf where our boat was moored. Well prepared and with rain gear on, I decided to try to obtain a can of gas for our generator. That can was aboard the boat. Sam accompanied me and with great difficulty, I finally managed to get the five gallons can of gas up onto the wharf but the wind kept trying to blow it away until Sam stepped in and dragged that can of gas out of harms way and in a safe place further in on the wharf deck. I don't think I would have managed that time if Sam hadn'€™t helped.

Sam was bout 10 years old when he began to have medical problems, his walking was affected and he had a persistent cough. Finally we took him to the vet and sad indeed was the day we were forced to "put him down." All of our children (now adults) plus the grandchildren got to know and have fun with Sam even if some of them only got to see him (and us) once or twice a year.

After Sam had passed on.

About two weeks after Sam had passed on, we went out to the cabin for the weekend, the party included my wife, Audrey, my sister, Bride, and our granddaughter, Kayla. As we were having lunch at the cabin, Bride suddenly spoke up and said "I saw Sam while we were on the way out here from Stanhope." I replied, "€œUnfortunately, we will never see Sam again."€ Bride was serious and her reply was "OK then but lets just retrace our route back to the cliff after lunch, you'€™ll see."€ After the lunch was over, we did just that until we came to the high cliff which was locally called Bluff Head. Bride said "just slow down a bit and just look up here"€ as she pointed her finger. I couldn'€™t believe it, there was a rock formation exactly like a dogs head, black and sticking out from the cliff (see picture). We were just dumbfounded, after all we had been coming out here for 25 years and never saw that before. By the way, the mouth looked to be open, just like Sam as he was about to bark. All of us were quiet as we kept gazing at that rock formation until someone said "I think we will call this Sam's head from now on." As we took some pictures, I began to winder if the formation had been there for all those years, if so, how come we hadn't seen it until now.

Since we first saw Sam's Head in the cliff, I have showed other friends and relatives and each one expressed great surprise, assuring us that indeed it looked exactly like Sam and not one of them had ever seen it before. I took one picture from another angle and it looked like there was a man standing near the dogs head and it looked like one of Sam and our friend Len. He was wearing his baseball cap as usual and was one of the main Sam admirers. Len's family too, agree with us.

As I told my wife, Audrey, Sam is going to make sure we don’t forget him and now every trip we make to the cabin on Thwart Island, we stop and say "€œhi" to Sam. We will never forget him.

Ron Chaulk
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