using htaccess to redirect certain requests to a php file along with variables

Question

Im trying to find how to take a page request such as http://www.domain.com/sam/?dog=woof&cat=meow and send it to http://www.domain.com/animals.php?dog=woof&cat=meow

Ive tried a few things ive found on here, or i adapted them i should say, but i keep getting either nothing, or infinite loops.

Any ideas?

UPDATE

this is the htaccess file as it stands now

when i make my above request, i get sent to domain.com/sam/index.php (which is not there)

RewriteEngine on 
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^sam/$ animals.php [QSA]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !(\.gif)|(\.jpg)|(\.png)|(\.css)|(\.js)|(\.php)|(\.swf)|(\.xpi)|(\.ico)|(\.src)$ 
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(.*)$
#RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} ! -f

RewriteRule (.*)$ get.php?code=$1 [L]

Answer 1

RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^sam/$ animals.php [QSA]

If in an .htaccess on the parent of "sam", the RewriteBase can be omitted.