Poppy Rocky Tuesday on February 7th, 2017

Poppy Rocky Tuesday on February 7th, 2017

Good morning friends.

Happy Poppy Rocky Tuesday. A day filled with hope and possibilities. Remember, if the Pops and Rocky can make it, anyone can.

Nobody had the deck stacked against them more than the Pops and Rocky. Love, faith and hope can trounce any odds.

OK, being today is the day of hope, let’s kick it off with two positive notions.

1. It never feels like the right time, but it’s always the right time to pursue what we love.

2. In order for something to change, we have to change something. Osmosis only works in the movies. In real life, we have to take an action.

Day 759 here in Puerto Rico and day 447 since we rescued Rocky.

Have a great Tuesday friends. Scott Smith for Sammy & Family.

Vanessa and the Pops

Vanessa and the Pops

Good morning friends.

Happy Sunday Funday. Its great to be alive on August 7th, 2016. Little Pops and Vanessa came by to wish everyone a wonderful day.

We love Sunday’s. It’s our favorite day of the week. It’s such a newspaper and coffee kind of morning.

I love this picture and wanted to share it with our friends from around the world. Pops is the foundation of our family at this point. He’s the baby of the house. Even though he four years old now, he’s still the baby.

The funny thing is he knows that and uses it to his advantage everyday. Spoiling him actually makes Vanessa and I happy, so its all good.

Have a great Sunday Funday friends. Scott Smith for Sammy & Family.

Poppy Rocky Tuesday on August 2nd, 2016

Poppy Rocky Tuesday on August 2nd, 2016

Good morning friends.

Happy Poppy Rocky Tuesday. A day filled with Hope and Possibilities. Remember, if the Pops and Rocky can make it, anyone can.

Its funny how conditioned we can become. Anytime its Tuesday, I can feel the Zeal in the air because of Poppy Rocky Tuesdays.

Day 568 here in Puerto Rico and day and day 258 since we rescued Rocky.

OK, lets kick this day off with two actionable notions.

1. Just because I was like that, does Not mean I have to stay like that. Today is a new day and another chance to be the best version of ourselves.

2. Let’s use the word “We” more and less “Me”.  There is no “I” in Team.

Have a fantabulous Tuesday. Scott Smith for Sammy & Family.

Poppy Rocky Tuesday on May 31st, 2016

Poppy Rocky Tuesday on May 31st, 2016

Good morning friends.

Happy Poppy Rocky Tuesday. A day filled with Hope and Possibilities. Remember, if the Pops and Rocky can make it, anyone can.

Rocky reminds me its the little things in life. Just look at him here. We’re not doing very much, but hes having the time of his life.

Day 507 here in Puerto Rico, and day 195 since we rescued Rocky. Scott Smith for Sammy & Family.

ELS and Miracles

ELS and Miracles

Good evening friends.

Thank you for stopping by.  We hope you had a nice day today. As a former misery addict, its overwhelmingly gratifying to come before all of you animal lovers as a positive spirit today. Let’s remember friends, the down moments will pass. They always do.

Let’s keep the faith and hope because the sun is right around the corner starting immediately. If you doubt that, think of me and don’t doubt it.  I have been lower than hell, put there by myself of course, and I am a happy man today. So use my trials and tribulations to avert further complications and have faith that you are on the rise.

Its very helpful to have visual associations to resort to like a reflex. Kind of like the Doctor used to tap our knee with a tiny rubber hammer to check our reflex sensitivity

I would like to offer my friends a visual association when you are feeling down and out that you can refer to on a dime.

Here it is.

Remember the Pops, a sweet little guy that kept getting marked down at the store because nobody wanted him.  Remember that Rocky was living on the street thin as a stick and infested with large ticks. Remember Jeffery who was rescued by Vanessa and her dad from a very abusive life.  Remember me who had severe life threatening problems and was a walking dead man on and off for 8 years.
On April 13th, 2012, I was arrested for my reaction over the worst betrayal I had ever seen or experienced in my life regarding Sammy. I am sure many of you saw that in the media. The four year anniversary will be coming up in 6 days from today. I can confidently say that 4 years later, I would go to war again for him or any one of my other 5 dogs in heartbeat. Fortunately I don’t have make those kind of distinctions anymore as I have smartened up regarding the selection of the company I keep.

I remember when I was in the back of the Police Car, I smiled and told the arresting officer, I am going to turn this into the biggest positive of my life.

From there, I met Vanessa on Instagram. The ELS community is much better and bigger than what I had built before. I have now been living in the Caribbean for 451 days today. I live with Vanessa, her dad Jorge, who fought in the Korean War for the U.S. when he was 19 years old, and our 6 dogs.

The ELS story is a story of miracles. One miracle after another.  So if anyone asks me do miracles exist. My answer is simple; “You bet they do”  — The one caveat is that a miracle requires the heart and the guts to believe you are worth receiving one.

I will close with this. I tweeted Irene Cara the other day to remind her she has one of the greatest voices of all time. Irene Cara was on of the stars of the 1980 movie; “Fame” — My lord that gal can sing. If you never heard her, please take a listen to; “Out here on my own”, “What a feeling”, “Hot Lunch”, and the song, “Remember my name”

See you tonight friends. Life was grand today on April 7th, 2016. Scott Smith for Sammy & Family. #Gemini

Poppy Rocky Tuesday on April 5th, 2016

Poppy Rocky Tuesday on April 5th, 2016

Good morning friends.

Happy Poppy Rocky Tuesday. A day filled with Hope and Possibilities. Try to remember, if the Pops and Rocky can make it, anyone can.

I find Tuesday’s to have a great sense of Zeal to them. Its very refreshing. Its like we are on an upswing or something, and that’s good.

So being we are on a upswing, lets start the day with two Positive notions;

1. Let’s be open to a great day. Today is a gift and could have a lot in store for us.

2. If we do one thing today that we have been avoiding, but we know we have to, tomorrow we will feel very good about it.

Day 449 here in Puerto Rico, and day 139 since we rescued Rocky.  That’s pretty cool, right ?  See you tonight friends. Scott Smith for Sammy & Family.

Happy Poppy Tuesday on October 20, 2015

Poppy October 20, 2015

Good morning friends.

Happy Poppy Tuesday.  A day filled with Hope and Possibilities.  Remember, if the Pops can do it, anyone can.  This is the Pops and I when we first came together.  His heart was still bruised from his start in life at this point. He was still wondering wast this is his new home or is it just temporary.

He had known yet that he completed Sammy & Family.  This was two year ago.  And now the Pops is the star of our community every Tuesday.  Not bad for a little boy that was lost in NYC and nobody wanted him. While we do have 4 other dogs that we love to death, I must admit I do favor Poppy.  The rest of the crew are cool with that also.  Its almost like our other dogs know Poppy had a very rough start in life.

I would literally in jump in front of a bus to save him no matter what the consequence. I could Not image a life without him.  I’m starting to think its time to ramp up my tattoo collection, one for each dog we have. I just hope that doesn’t make people nervous when I start my frozen Snickers dreamson the beach, lol.

OK friends, lets kick this Poppy Tuesday off with two Positive Notions.

1. The path to a better world flows through the humane treatment of all animals.

2. There are no coincidences in life, everything happens for a reason.  For example, Dog spelled backwards is “God”

See you tonight friends. Day 283 here in Puerto Rico.

The Girl that almost was but the dog won me over

The girl that almost was but the dog won me over

Good evening friends.  OK, it looks like the story of one of my ex girlfriends and her dog won the votes.

So lets get right into it.  this was about 6 years ago. I was 40 years old and was doing the online dating thing like a full time job.  I was a different kind of online dater than most. Most people would have several dialogues over email, then get on the phone and chat for a few minutes and either set up a date or not.  You see I just wanted to go out. So my emails to women online were clear and to the point.

In my email to them I would say “Would you like to meet for drinks or dinner tonight?” 90 percent of people didn’t respond. Out of the 10 percent that did, some would say; “so tell me about yourself” — I would say “I will tell you about myself when we meet”  — Remember friends with online dating, they can read your profile, so its kind of a repetitive question from them.  Normally when i would say that it would end our dialogues and I would never hear from them again. Several people inside the 10 percent would say; ” I like a man who knows what he wants and directly asks for it” — So i would say “that’s great to hear”  But then some of them would say; “The problem is I already have plans tonight.” So I would say to them, OK reach out to me when you’re free and they never would.  But one or two gals out of the ten percent would say; “I can meet you at 6 pm tonight”  — And that’s all it takes folks, just one “Yes,’ and you get to meet a new person.

OK, I’m rambling.  On one particular night I met a woman out who grew up near the town I did and we had friends in common.  Now when I connect, I move very quickly, and I don’t mean in the hanky panky way.  I mean from “I want to see them a lot starting the next day.”  Within 3 weeks we were in a full fledged relationship.  We were talking moving in together, engagement, we were very into each other.  She had a dog, I won’t say his name, but she loved him like I love Sammy, Henry, Patrick, Jeffrey and Kelly.  And I absolutely loved her dog.   Anytime we saw each other I just wanted to play with her dog or take her out somewhere.  God forbid we just sat home and relaxed.

I wanted to be at the bars laughing with people and talking about light, dumb and breezy stuff, the dumber the better. This particular gal I was dating was a doctor.  After a while she said; “Listen, I really want to be together but I want to live  a slower and quieter life”  I knew what she meant, but I was not on the same page.  She was a really nice person too.

So she put it to me, she said “you have to choose us or this running around life that you have”  — And not running around with other ladies, but I just couldn’t sit still.  I didn’t like myself enough to want to sit with myself.  And living the quiet  life with her forced me to be with myself more than i was willing to be.

So we were at dinner and she asked me what i decided to do.  I told her I cannot slow down and live that kind of life. I really have strong feelings for you but I must maintain this pace in my life. I don’t know how to live any other way.  So she said, ” listen, I’m a doctor, this is not going to work out.  I think we have to call it off.

I felt badly because I knew she was right and I knew what a nice girl she was. Nonetheless, I said; “Listen, please don’t take this the wrong way, I have grown very attached to your dog, you work late hours and I have two dogs.  I think your dog would be happier with my two dogs and I, and would you be willing to give him up?”

Well friends, this is when things really went poorly.  She threw a drink in my face and said that was the worst question anyone has ever asked her in her life. She said  how dare you ?   Boy did I feel like a horses patoot.  I tell this story in gest looking back, but i do look back and feel bad about it.

In conclusion, when you and a nice person split for whatever reason, don’t ask them if you can keep their beloved pet they’ve had for 6 years.   #LearnedTheHardWay  #AnotherClassIsleptThrough

Poppy Tuesday on July 28th, 2015

Poppy Tuesday.  A day filled with Hope and Possibilities

Good morning friends. Happy Poppy Tuesday. A day filled with Hope and possibilities.

Remember Patrick was in a cage for 8 straight months getting marked down over and over again on price on 61st Street & Lexington Avenue in NYC. Now two years later and Sammy & Family’s 198th day in Puerto Rico, Poppy is the center of our family including 4 other dogs.

I love this boy to to death. I let him get away with anything. He’s the only one of our 5 dogs that drinks from a cup that I bring him and some of my food from my plate that I allow him to have. I do that to make up for tough start he had, he’s loved and spoiled to the core now and he gets a pass on the spoiled-ness with us.

OK, let’s kick this Poppy Tuesday off with two positive notions;

1. If life can turn on a dime for Poppy, it can happen to any one of us.

2. It’s great to be alive on July 28th, 2015.Many people that were here yesterday are no longer with us today. This Tuesday is a gift, let’s put bow around it.

See you tonight friend. Love always, Sammy & Family.