Jeff had the day off and we were heading to Home Depot to get supplies to plant rose bushes. About 2 minutes from home, a small dachshund ran across the road. We had to stop to check on him - I got down and called to him, he ran right up to me.

The warm, sweet little fellow was minus a collar. We drove around the neighborhood he was coming out of - it had to be someone's baby who just snuck out. No luck.

We took him home and started trying to find his owners. We papered the area in, put ads in the paper and made calls to the SPCA & pound. But his owners never showed up.

He is a sweet boy, about 2-4 years old and a tremendous flirt. He started having seizures and was diagnosed with epilepsy - we suspect he was dumped because of it.

We thought the Cary law limiting homes to two dogs was still in effect but we found out it had been overturned.

We are in love with him as are the pups - well Buster definitely is in love and Molly is good with him. We got some nice calls from people offering to adopt him if his owners didn't claim him but we think his wandering in to the road in front of us is karma, so we are keeping him. Why not - the law is gone and we have a huge house and great fenced in yard.

Jeff and our neighbor Jen separately said he looked like a 'Sam' and I found out later my grandmother named several dogs Sam, so that seems like more karma, so Sam is he.

The epilepsy is totally under control now that he's on medicine - he takes a half pill twice a day and the meds cost the whopping $8 a month.

He's a wily one, he's snuck out twice the first week - he's only 16 pounds and being a dachshund, he's short. He snuck under the fence once and then out the front door once. We found him both times pretty quickly. Jeff has worked extensively on the fence and Sam-proved it.

I'm of course very tickled because a third dog has hastened our car buying plans - one trip to the vet with three dogs in the Saturn was enough! Hence we are now buying a used Jeep Cherokee. We've found the one we want, just need to negotiate the price down. So thanks Sam!

-michelle