A Christmas Gift For You

Most stories you are told of someones best Christmas memory is usually centered in their childhood and involves a toy, or a puppy, maybe a plastic purse. We all can relate to Ralphie from "A Christmas Story" with his Red Rider BB gun.Some people will relive stories of family members arriving unexpectedly on Christmas Eve. The stories all vary to a certain extent, but there is always a common thread that weaves their tales together. The magic of Christmas and the spirit of of the holiday season. Most people won't admit it, but they like to believe that there is some outside force, a spirit if you will, that is looking out for them attempting to help them through the hard times making the good times more memorable.These beliefs couldn't be more crystallized than in the image of St. Nicholas and the Christmas season. I believe the story that I'm about to tell you incorporates many of the elements that fall under the scope of the magic of Christmas. I like to think the story is fairly humorous, and best of all it's true !
When I was fifteen years old I received a red male Chow Chow for my birthday/ Christmas present. The reason for the combination of the two occasions was that for the first time in his life my father actually paid money for a dog. My dad never saw any reason to pay for anything that could be obtained for free. Over the years we had a menagerie of different dogs, most mutts or strays that followed me home. We did have a purebred Dachshund that my grandmother had bred. As is the case with some purebred dogs he went a little crazy as he got older and we had to find a new home for him. None the less I never gave up on having a dog of my own, and once I saw a Chow I knew I had to have one of those dogs. I did get a Chow puppy, purebred with no papers, at the discount price of $125.00. That was still an astronomical amount to pay for a dog in my dads mind, but it was substantially less than the average of $500.00 that AKC registered purebred Chows sold for at the time. I named him Samson, and just like the Biblical that he was named for we found over the next sixteen years that possessed some rather amazing traits. The best way to describe Samson would be to compare him to a force of nature. I watched him intimidate full grown men with a single growl. He really cared for no one other than our family members, and some of them weren't to sure about that. When Samson was a year old my father insisted that I take Samson to obedience classes. The idea of obedience class came from his deep sense of self-preservation more than the desire to have a dog that would walk and heel on a leash. Samson had developed a playful puppy habit of clamping down on your forearm and shaking it violently as if you were an old rag doll. To his great dismay Samson seemed to be particularly fond of the size and taste of my fathers forearms.When my father would arrive at work on Mondays after a weekend of hand to hand combat with Samson his arms scratched and scarred all of his co-workers would joke that my mom must be "a real animal" on the weekends. After two weeks in obedience class the instructor told us that in all the years he had been training dogs he had never encountered a dog that was so fearless and aggressive. These are outstanding traits for a Marine recruit however they are not desirable in your average house pet. That was Samson my first Chow. To be continued........