Sammy's BiG Adventure

So this past Saturday morning we are on our way to PMO (Pre Ministry Orientation). Like all good interns we are attempting to arrive EARLY. That's right, you read it correctly...I, Heidi was in the group attempting to be early to something. We would have been there early too except that a certain dog decided to have a stare down with our car.

My roommate Lisa was driving and the dog was in the middle of the road just staring down our car. Lisa slowed down and immediately told us we needed to open the door and grab it. Cec and I were like "WHAT?!" Lisa pulled over and proceeded to try and get the dog off the road and to run away, nicely of course. When that was unsuccessful and the dog just laid down on the side of the road she was distressed and didn't know what to do. She tried coxing the dog to follow her, but it would not. Lisa kept asking us if she should try and pick it up, now keep in mind that this is definately a STRAY dog. The dog did look hurt and like it had been stray for a little while, however it was not that old. Well after waiting what I considered a VERY polite amount of time I gently informed Lisa that if she was in fact going to pick up the dog and bring it with us she needed to do it soon or my "D" personality was REALLY going to kick in!

Lisa picked the dog up and we proceeded onto the PBI (the Bible Institute) where we hold our PMO classes. Before we arrived at PBI the dog had already been named Sam and once there Lisa got the her settled outside and we participated in our class. At the end of the day Sam received a bath, a visit to the Vet, another bath and we headed home. Now keep in mind that we do have landlords, they speak no english, its 9PM at night and we are coming home with a stray dog. Thankfully Lisa had a note written in Portuguese to show them and as soon as they saw the dog they were happy to let her stay until Monday. The plan being to try and find her a home or take her to a shelter.

Well Monday has now come, there is no room in the shelter and no new home for Sammy. You see here in Portugal dogs are not seen as pets, they are instead viewed as guard dogs and often are mistreated. In addition, the month of August is when everyone in Europe goes on holiday. Here in Portugal people often release their dogs while they are on holiday rather than finding someone to care for them. This is why the shelters fill up so quickly and why there are so many stray animals.

Well Lisa spoke with our landlords (with the help of our Portuguese roommate, Andreia) and they have told Lisa she can keep Sammy until she finds her a home, all Lisa has to do is buy a dog house for her. So Sammy now has a temorary home here with us...and that was Sammy's BIG adventure.

Now I know that I did not come here to minister to dogs but hey I've got to start small :)