How we saved Britain's Biggest Dog: The battle for 20st Samson condemned to the kennel in the sky

By Jenny Johnston for the Daily Mail
Updated: 17:47 EST, 18 November 2008

Nearly 20 stone of dog takes some handling. So imagine what nearly 20 stone of poorly dog means. It's just as well that Julie Woods - the owner of Samson, Britain's biggest dog - isn't the complaining type.

She's had to sacrifice her place on the family sofa because Samson, home from the vet after having his knee rebuilt, wants a 'comfy seat'.

The size of a Shetland pony, Samson isn't the daintiest of creatures at the best of times. Today, bandaged and dosed up on painkillers, he is lumbering more than usual.

Ray Woods with Samson - the biggest dog in Britain at 37 inches high and 19 stone

Watching him heave himself onto a sofa designed for four adults is akin to watching a grizzly bear trying to climb a tree. But he gets there.

Julie, 54, is flattened in the melee, but doesn't seem to mind.

'This is nothing,' she says, from somewhere underneath a mass of black fur. 'When we brought him back from the vet, one of the biggest issues was how we were going to get him into the car.

'We tried to buy a ramp on eBay, but the widest we could get was 13in, which was no good for Samson.

'Ray, my husband, ended up taking a stepladder to pieces in order to make a ramp. We've learned to come up with our own solutions when it comes to Samson - we've pretty much made it up as we've gone along.'

That's some understatement. Life in this modest, three-bedroom semi in Boston, Lincolnshire, has never been

the same since Julie and Ray went to an abandoned dogs' home two years ago to replace their last pet, a terrier. They had decided that maybe it was time to consider a slightly bigger dog.

Nothing could have prepared them for Samson - a boisterous puppy who, they were warned, had ripped his previous owners' home to pieces, then had done the same to the garden shed when he was banished there. Aged just six months, he weighed nearly 16st and was still growing.

'We were ushered into the yard and this huge, great dog came bounding out and pinned us to the wall,' says Julie. 'That was it. It was as if he was saying: "That's my Mummy and Daddy." We just fell in love with him.'

Little and large: Samson makes a new friend in a Jack Russell

Julie describes Samson as a freak of nature - the result of what can sometimes happen when a Great Dane leaps over a fence to mate with his neighbour, a Newfoundland.

'We discovered afterwards that he was one of a litter of 11 - but he is much, much bigger than all his brothers and sisters,' says Julie. 'I always say there must be a mutant gene in there somewhere. Everyone who sees him just goes: "Oh wow!" '

Indeed, no other reaction is possible. When he stands on his hind legs, Samson is 6ft 6in. When not commandeering the sofa, he sleeps on a 6ft rug.

'He's approaching 7ft long when he stretches himself out, though, so he

does hang over the ends a bit,' says Julie. 'We were never able to buy a proper dog bed to fit him, so he sleeps on two king-sized duvets.'

It's hard to convey just how big Samson is. When he trots through the house, his back is higher than the dining table. Perhaps the best way of summing it up is to tell you that he can drink out of the kitchen sink.

Living with Samson was always going to be challenging. For starters, it costs £60 a month to feed him.

'From the beginning, there were practical problems,' says Julie. 'We couldn't get a big enough collar, so that had to be specially made. And he has so much thick, dense hair that if he gets wet, it's practically impossible to get him dry again, so a winter coat was vital. We ended up getting one for a pony, which fitted perfectly.'

Julie and Ray had Samson weighed not long after they got him. That in itself was a logistical nightmare.

'We wanted to know how much food he needed, but recommendations are based on the weight of the dog. Our vet's scales just weren't big enough, so we ended up calling the local scrapyard and asking if they could help.

'I don't think they'd ever been asked to weigh a dog before - but they were delighted to help with their weighbridge. He was 16 stone 2lb then.'

At the start of last year, Samson had reached 19st 10lb, earning him the title of Britain's biggest dog. The ensuing publicity turned him into a celebrity.

Sofa giant: Samson dwarfs Julie Woods

'When we go out shopping, everyone wants to pat him. We walked across the square in town the other week: it's only 500 yards, but it took us an hour.

'It's not just locally. There are websites devoted to him in the U.S. He's been in Chilean newspapers. Tomorrow, a man is coming from Germany to see him. No one can quite believe a dog can be this big.'

'Big' doesn't mean 'fat', though, Julie is at pains to point out. 'He might look fat - but that's because he has a deep chest. He's just one huge, solid dog.'

And therein lies the problem. Big dogs are often prone to a host of health problems, from heart disease to joint difficulties. Samson is no exception. Three months ago, Julie and Ray realised that he was already going lame.

One day he turned abruptly and yelped, and they thought he'd pulled a muscle. Investigations into the resulting limp revealed, though, that the cruciate ligament in one back leg was seriously damaged.

Julie and Ray were told that if he did not have an operation, his leg was likely to give way. There was a real chance the injury would lead to permanent disability - a desperate situation for a dog of his size and one which would almost certainly lead to him having to be put down.

The couple were distraught to learn that the cost of treatment would be around £4,000. At this point, the Daily Mail stepped in, offering to help.

Even then, there was much disagreement among the professionals about whether Samson was fit for the surgery. 'At one point, our vet told us he thought if we gave Samson the operation, he would never get up again,' says Julie.

Enlarge  

Dr Christoph Stork of Davies Veterinary Specialists, believed that the operation - in which Samson's tibia was cut, rotated and fixed back in place - was his best chance for a normal life

'We didn't know what to do. At one point, we called off the whole thing and offered to return the money to all the people who had donated. It was all so stressful.'

Eventually, they sought the opinion of a specialist vet, Dr Christoph Stork of Davies Veterinary Specialists, who believed that the operation - in which Samson's tibia was cut, rotated and fixed back in place - was his best chance for a normal life.

Last week, Samson went under the knife in what Dr Stork describes as an 'extremely challenging operation'.

'I'd never seen such a big dog and his size posed huge difficulties,' he says. 'The operation isn't unusual for us, but Samson's size meant we had to make certain adaptations.

'Once we re-position the bone, we normally secure it with a single metal plate, but we were concerned this might not be strong enough. So we had to make special arrangements for Samson. We doubled up and used two locking plates.'

It will be three or four months before the outcome of the procedure can be assessed, but so far Samson is doing well. He is already walking confidently on the leg - if rather slower than his usual, frenetic pace.

'You can't keep a dog his size off his feet,' says Julie. 'The challenge is just to make sure he doesn't overdo it.'

What is remarkable about Julie and Ray is that they took on Samson in the first place. Julie has a history of ill health, having suffered from unexplained epileptic fits for many years. Eight years ago, she had a massive stroke - probably related to the fits - which has left her wheelchair bound.

Did she not have any reservations about taking on the responsibility of such a huge dog? 'Well, obviously, we knew he was going to be massive, but we didn't anticipate anything like this,' she says.

'There are practical problems. Obviously, I can't walk him on my own, but Ray is fantastic, and tends to feed him, too, though I can manage that. They've developed a remarkable bond.'

Clearly, Julie has, too. Tears come to her eyes when she even thinks about the subject of Samson not being with them for ever. She says, quite simply: 'He is our world.

'I can't explain it, but he just came into this house and turned us all around. We adore him, and would do anything for him. And he gives us back all that love and more.

'We have a baby monitor rigged up so we can hear if he needs us in the night. When he was away having his op, the house seemed so quiet. We were lost without him.'

It sounds as if looking after Samson has been much-needed therapy for Julie, too.

'Oh very much so, yes. It's hard to wallow in your own problems when you have someone else to look after - and Samson does take some looking after.

'But he looks after me, too. There's nothing quite like a cuddle from him. He's a very cuddly dog.

'And he is thoughtful, too. I had one of my seizures the other day - I have them quite frequently - and while I was lying there Samson went and fetched a teddy and put it on top of me.'

Julie's determination to keep Samson in peak fitness is understandable when you discover that she and Ray had to make the terrible decision to end the lives of their previous two dogs, Bruce and Paddy.

'Paddy had diabetes. For six months we struggled to get his blood sugar levels sorted, but it was hopeless. He got to the end of his tether, and so did we.

'And Bruce had lymphoma. There was no hope. I still don't think we've got over that.'

The couple don't have rose-tinted glasses on when it comes to Samson's future, though.

'We're not naive. We know that even if he gets through this one well, Samson won't have a long life. He will inevitably get arthritis and have some of the complications that big dogs tend to get.

'But we are determined that while he is with us, we will fight for him to have the best life possible. He deserves that much.'

With that, she puts her arms around Samson - or as far around him as they go - and bends in for a cuddle; rather proving that however much space this dog takes up in the home, it is nothing to what he claims of his owners' hearts.