Introducing Maggie

Since a surprising number of you are actually reading this on a nearly daily basis (God love you!), I thought I would introduce another family member to you.  This is our dog, Maggie.

  I know, I know.  I can almost hear the collective groan. "Another pet posting?" (Yep, but my first ever)  "Why does everyone who gets a 10 cent blog have to post pictures of their pets?" (Science may never know) "Do they let just anyone have a blog these days?" (As a matter of fact, yes.)

If you are an animal lover, you'll understand.  If you are really put off by this post, please come back tomorrow.  I promise I won't mention pets at all.  However, this dog, Maggie, will be the dog that our two girls, age 6 and 11, will end up remembering as "their dog" when they grow up.  As such, Maggie holds a significant place in our family.

We had a cute little miniature poodle before Maggie.  He was over 18 years old when he died, but the years he was around along with the kids, he wasn't too inclined to play for more than a minute and slept most of the time.  When that dog died, I figured we wouldn't get another dog.  Having an old dog is a lot of work!  However, when I cried for about a week after he died, I knew I would be looking for another dog.

We casually looked at pounds and such, but nothing really jumped out at us.  One weekend we saw this dog.  She was from the Franklin County Shelter, but was in the Sunset Hills Petsmart for one of those weekend things.  She was very nervous in the cage and even when we took her outside for a little walk.  The thing that struck me, though, is that even in this upset state she completely allowed our little one to basically abuse her without even flinching.  At least we knew she would be good around kids.  She was already getting used to us, and when we started to take her back inside, she really resisted.

Well, we adopted her, and the pound was overjoyed.  They were afraid because of her age (7 at the time) that she would be hard to adopt.  While she has been a challenge in some areas:  She is part lab and part beagle, so she is hunting dog SQUARED and she'll chase anything that moves.  She'll also tear anything apart that even remotely smells like a food flavoring, occasionally decides the basement offices are a bathroom, etc.  she is in fact a fantastic and perfect dog for the kids.  Come to think of it, she kind of acts like the kids.  Maybe that is why they get along so well!

She would rather be with the kids than anywhere else, and if they leave the house without her, she will watch out the door for them until they return.  She sleeps in the girls beds as well (which we allow) and typically doesn't get up until they do.  She loves all kids and will ignore adults if there are kids around.

She is also the softest adult dog I've pet.  I call her my "little brown dog" and I don't know what I'd do without her!

P.S.  Look at that fabulous lawn!  It sure doesn't look like that now, but that picture was taken in July so I have high hopes for later this fall and next year.  Over-seed now, gardeners.

Comments

[Mel]

She's GORGEOUS. Isn't she the dog that ate my scrapbooking stuff? LOL

[Gregg]

Yep. That's the dog!