SAM: My new family brought me to their home first, before they got my sister! I remember being taken away from my brothers and sisters and bundled up in a car with these new-to-me humans. And it was in the car on the way to my new home that I received my name! The children wanted to call me "Sam." The adult humans agreed that it was a good name. And so I learned to come when they called my name. Although I did enjoy playing with the humans who thought I was their pet, they were really my pets. But as much fun as I had with my human pets, I still was lonely for my brothers and sisters.

And then one day, there appeared at the front door the human who owned my mother and my brothers and sisters and me - and she had two of my sisters with her! Oh joy-joy-joy! How the three of us ran around through the house, chasing each other until we got put out into the back yard, where we sniffed around at all the bushes and trees and the fence - and chased each other some more.

Then when we got really tired out, the back door opened and my new human pets called us in. Both my sisters immediately ran to the human they knew. But then one of them stopped. She knew something was going to happen. She didn't understand why, but she knew that her human wasn't going to take her back home again! She ran and tried to hide in a corner of the room.

I was too tired by then to try to coax her out to play. So I plopped down at the feet of one of my new humans. Soon the human who had owned my siblings and me stood up and walked to the front door, carrying my other sister, and left.

DEE: I used to have several brothers and sisters when I was little. But as we got bigger, other humans came and looked us over. One by one, all my brothers and most of my sisters were taken away. My remaining sister and I never saw our siblings again. But at least we had each other! And then one day our human bundled both of us into her car and drove us over to another human house. What a wonderful surprise when we discovered one of our brothers in this house! Oh what fun we had running and chasing each other all around the house, until we were put outside.

When we were tired out, we were allowed back in the house. My sister and I ran over to where our human was sitting. She picked up my sister - but not me! Suddenly, I realized that she wasn't going to take me home with her again! I felt very sad. So sad that I shivered and ran to sit in one of the room's corners. My brother ignored me. So did all the humans. Then, just as I had figured, my human took my sister out the door and left me behind. I stayed in the corner.

The new humans then tried to get me to play with them. But I just wanted to sit in the corner and feel sad. Even with my brother in the room, I still felt sad. So the new humans let me sit there for a while. I got hungry and thirsty, but I didn't know what to do about it. The humans left the room with my brother trotting after them. Soon I smelled food. One of the humans came over to me and picked me up. She set me down in another room, in front of a bowl of food. I ate it all up and had some water, too.

At first I didn't want to play with the humans. I played only with my brother. I learned his new name was Sam. And I also learned that the humans had named me Dee. But still, it took me several days to get over feeling sad. One day I did play with not only Sam, but also these new humans. And I had fun! From that day on, I didn't feel sad any more.

1 ~ 2 ~ 3