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by Jennifer Greenwood

Coming home from work, Maria McGuire was still sad about the loss of her golden retriever, Max, 2 weeks earlier. He was her fourth golden and of all the dogs she’d had, he was “her ‘man,’” she said. “It was an unbelievable bond.”

So as she drove past the PetSmart store in Schenectady, N.Y., Maria thought she’d “just stop in.” The Rensselaer County Humane Society had dogs available for adoption and she might meet a good dog for her.

She walked through the adoption area and didn’t see any golden retrievers. Her heart sank a little. Then she found out more dogs were inside. That’s where she found Sammy (who was known as Pheph back then).

Sammy spots his mom

Sammy is a handsome dog; half Labrador and half pit bull. He and Maria just hung out for a few minutes, looking at each other. Sammy had his eyes on her the whole time — it was as if he knew she was the one.

Maria talked to the volunteer about Sammy and whether he would get along with her cats — she has 4 of them, including one who likes only her, so that’s important. The volunteer suggested that Maria take Sammy home for an hour to see how he fit with her family.

Maria thought that could be a good test. “I’ll take him home, see how it goes. And then, we just kind of clicked,” she said. She and Sammy have been together ever since.

And what did the cats think about all this?