"My Name is Sam" is the story of a student who had to give a speech in class about dogs. The story was told in first person and the reader is never told the name of the speaker. The speaker plans a speech about spaying and neutering pets. This is important because there are so many strays. The speaker found lots of good statistics and made lots of notes about facts. He studied them until he had them memorized and could give the speech without notes. Then he decided to make his speech more real. He went to the Humane Society to borrow a puppy. This would show a real example of the problem of too many puppies and not enough people to adopt them.

             The people at the Humane Society liked the topic of his speech. They said they would loan him a puppy, and gave him a tour of their facilities. He saw the front room where people dropped pets off, and finally, the room where animals who were not adopted were put to sleep. He saw a puppy named Sam put down. The reason the owner gave for giving up the dog was that the dog jumped on children. The man giving the speech knew a lot about dogs and knew the dog needed training, not death. He calmed the dog as it was put to sleep by whispering its name - "Sam.".

             This story moved me and convinced me that spaying and neutering is important. It also showed that sometimes one real example is worth a lot more than statistics and facts. It occurred to me that he should have given this speech first, to show the problem. Then he could have brought in his well-behaved dog and showed that dogs can be trained. Many of the dogs were put to sleep because of misbehavior.