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This picture of Sampson was taken by Tim's parent's Christmas tree, probably around Christmas 1994.  Tim used this picture on his original website he created in Grad School.

Tim used this picture of Sampson peering through the fence at our home on a Christmas letter in 1997.

In October 1996, Sampson moved from his home in Iowa to Tim's new home in the Twin Cities.  These next four pictures were taken sometime in 1997 or 1998.  Sampson loved the large yard and split-rail fence, and often coaxed passers-by to come up to the fence and give him some attention. 

This picture was taken in the same relative time period as the four above.  The boy is Geoffrey, our nephew.

Sampson loved our garden.  He usually didn't hurt anything, but occasionally we had to scold him when he'd cut through the middle of it!  One of his "little vices" was stealing tomatoes off of the vine.  Sampson always had to have something nearby to put in his mouth (our neighbor kids must have "donated" dozens of balls by leaving them too close to the fence).  Tomatoes were just like a ball to him-- only he could eat it when he got tired of playing!  Losing a few tomatoes was a small price to pay for the love he provided.

The pictures of Sampson below were taken in September, 2000.  Sampson gave us a scare when we came home from work and found that he couldn't bend his neck to pick up something off of the ground, nor get up from a laying-down position without help.  Fearing the worst, we posed him for a few pictures, fearing these might be his last.  Fortunately, he fully recovered, and lived over a year longer. 

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