We're privileged to read this open letter from Samantha's new family to her old home. Sometimes we want to forget that our rescue dogs had lives before they joined us. This very "Golden" family remembers and wants to provide closure and comfort to Sam's old family.

(Samantha has been renamed Lady)

Giving up your pet must have been a very difficult decision, and I've wrestled with whether or not to contact you with an update. It is not my intention to make you sad thinking about Samantha, but I thought that if the situation were reversed, I would always wonder what happened to my pet after she was adopted.

I wanted to drop you a line and let you know that Samantha is doing very well in her new home, and while I'm sure that you still miss her, hopefully this knowledge it will ease the pain of your separation from her.

We live in the bay area, and Samantha is our second golden. Our first is an 8 year old male (neutered), and the two of them get along like older brother and younger sister. We have an open space with trails and woods at the end of our street, and Sam loves to run and socialize there on her multiple walks every day. She has been very obedient, actually surprisingly so for a new dog, so she rapidly earned the ability to run and play off the leash on the trails. She enjoys this very much.

We have two children, 10 and 12. Sam and our son (12) have hit it off very well- it's kind of like having a second 12 year old (or a second 16 month old golden!). When he comes into the room, her ears perk up because she's sure that hijinks and fooling around will start in short order. They're a real tagteam, and with our other golden getting up in years and unwilling to wrestle like he used to, these two are building a great relationship. In the evenings, she loves to nuzzle up with us when we watch TV.

Sam's trying to figure out our black house cat, who is starting to come down from the bedrooms to get a closer look of the new addition. She still chases the cat, but has stopped searching under the furniture for her. Our last pet is a lop eared rabbit, and while they haven't played together, Sam passes by her cage often on the side of our house without paying much attention.

She's a real swimmer- only I don't know who to blame when she's in the pool- Sam or our children. She only goes in when the kids are in, so I don't think this will be a major problem.

We run Sam at the local high school with our golden and a friend's male 12 month old retriever. Sam has him pinned to the ground in short order, despite his out weighing her by more than several pounds. She looks forward to it, and we can bring her all the places we usually take our golden.

I guess in closing, please know that Sam is now with a loving family, adjusting well to her new home and we all understand what a sacrifice it must have been to have to give her up to the rescue organization. We were saying prayers one night and my son said that God works in strange ways- we wanted a second golden, and Sam became available at the right time. I hope that this letter gives you comfort in knowing that while difficult, you made the right decision in having Sam adopted, and the conclusion to the story was a happy one for Sam.

Good luck and God bless.