When she arrived for surgery, Sammie, like any celebrity, wore her best faux pearls — the ones with the angel locket attached.

But alas, the Labrador retriever had to take it off during the hour-long repair of her anterior cruciate ligament. Instead, she received a trendy lime green leg wrapping to hold a catheter in place and a decidedly unstylish shave of her gimpy leg almost to the hip. “She’s a sweet dog. We’ll take good care of her,” said Nate Miller, veterinary surgeon at Colorado Canine Orthopedics in Colorado Springs.

Sammie, the greeter at Bemis Art School, was in the recovery room draped in a royal purple blanket. She gamely mouthed a toy, but kept nodding off. Carol Mercogliano sat on the floor patting her dog’s soft Dumbo-sized ears.

Later, a loopy Sammie rode home in an SUV that an admirer lent because it was easier to get her in and out. It was because of Sammie’s many fans, who read about her plight, that she was able to get the medical treatment.

Sammie accompanies Carol Mercogliano, a Bemis office administrative assistant, to work. Mercogliano has health problems and her doctor prescribed the companion dog to help with stress. Sammie has become the unofficial therapist for young and old alike, particularly the at-risk students from Griffith Centers,who happily interact with her when they come for art class. Mercogliano got Sammie from a friend after her 12-year-old Newfoundland dog Buddy died.

Sammie, now 3 1/2, came up lame five months ago and was having a lot of pain and trouble walking. The injury would only get worse and become arthritic.

Tara Thomas, Bemis director of education, set up a fund and a Facebook page, sammieneedssurgery, to help pay for the medical procedure, which costs more than $3,300. Donations came from everywhere – the vet clinic, students, strangers and even someone in Germany.

One person donated in honor of their dog Bear, who had the same surgery nine years ago. A Texas couple passing through the area who saw a Gazette article took the time to deliver a check at the art school. An elderly couple was having lunch at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center and dropped off a tote filled with treats, toys and a check.

Mercogliano cannot talk about the outpouring without breaking into tears. “I’ve been so overwhelmed by it all and so thankful,” she says.

Thomas, too, was stunned by the generosity. “This all comes at a time of the Waldo fire, the bad economy and big things happening, but people had all this compassion to help this sweet dog.”

Meanwhile, Sammie is recuperating at home. There’s a pile of dog biscuits within reach on the floor and she’s enjoying tummy rubs and the prescribed gentle massages on her leg. She is watching the Food channel instead of her favorite Animal Planet, because she gets too excited barking at the dog scenes on the latter, Mercogliano notes.

The leg will take about three months to heal. The only concern is that in many cases, the other back leg suffers a similar fate.

Since it’s hard to get her up and down the steep outside stairs when nature calls, Thomas delivered a couple of large pieces of grass sod for the patio.

“She knew it was hers, but so far, she just lays down on it,” Mercogliano laughs.

Already, Sammie seems to miss her job. “She keeps looking at me like ‘Why aren’t we going to work?’”

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Contact Carol McGraw: 636-0371 Twitter @mcgrawatgazette Facebook Carol McGraw