It all started when we went to a party at my brother Sam’s house. At the party my brother Matt had a black Lab puppy that he had just picked up. Jodie and I instantly took to her. We walked her around the condo complex and played with her all night. Before we knew it, Matt decided to give her to us. I hope he knows, that as it turns out, he gave us one the best gifts we have ever been given.
Maggie had a very particular personality. She wanted things her way, and if they weren’t she let you know with a bark that was unique to her mood. She was bossy, finicky, shy, loving, funny and all in one little stout package. She had looks too. You could tell by the way she looked at you, if she needed you, wanted you to go away or if she wanted to play. One of my favorite looks she would give was to not move her head but roll her eyes up or to the side to look at you. We have several pictures of her doing this and it always made me smile. She had quite a range of emotions for a dog. That is one of the many things that we loved about her.
As a puppy we tried our best to train her. We tried crate training, but inevitably she would always end up in bed with us. By a trainer’s standards, we probably did a horrible job raising her, but we just could not stand to hear her whine or whimper without going and showering her with love. She tore some things up and pottied where she shouldn’t have on occasion, but we made it through the puppy days still falling in love with her more and more each day.
Maggie loved adventure and action. She was shy but when she was near a playground or the country she became a different dog. We soon discovered that Maggie loved going down slides at the park. We taught her to walk up the steps and eventually, without hesitation, she would whoosh down the slide and fly off the end and be ready for more. She even loved the spiral slides. It was so much fun taking her to the park, because we knew that this was one of the places that would allow her to have fun and be comfortable.
The other thing she loved so much was the country and the woods. For about half of her life we lived in an urban environment. She was never comfortable with the urban environment, except for playing on the slides. When we would take her for rides, she would usually lay on the floor of the car, but as soon as we reached rural areas, she would pop up and be as excited as a little puppy. I don’t know how she knew, but it was like she flipped a switch. We were also always curious how she would know, but she would always know when we were getting close to home. She would pop up on the seats and get so excited. She was such a smart dog. It was amazing but it seemed she could understand and comprehend some things that didn’t seem possible. One of her favorite places to go was the trails in the woods on the campus of Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. She loved it because we could let her run free. But it was funny, she would only run down the trail in front of us as far as a point that she could still see us. She would always stop before she lost sight of us, wait for us and then take off again. She did this throughout the whole walk, every time. Only once did we lose sight of her and actually lost her completely. We freaked out, and set out through the woods calling her and trying everything to find her. Eventually we did find her again, it was nerve racking until we did. That was the only time she ever ran from us. The last time we took her there she was advanced in her age, but we knew how much she loved it so we took her anyway. She tried to act like she was still a young pup, but soon her age caught up with her and she just couldn’t go anymore. I had to carry her all the way back to the car. She wanted so bad to be the young girl she once was, but it just wasn’t going to happen. We felt so bad for her.
We also took her camping ONCE. I say once with emphasis, because after that, we realized she wasn’t the best camping dog. She didn’t like sleeping in the tent. She was very restless and difficult. On the trip we decided to take her with us in a canoe for a short float trip. Not the greatest of ideas. She loved being in the water, but she did not like being in the canoe. She kept jumping out and was freaked out the whole time she was in the canoe. We eventually made it to our takeout point, but boy was it an adventure. Once we got back we decided to just take her down to the river and have some fun. She loved just swimming in the water. We could hardly get her out. That was always the way she was around water. As soon as she saw water she would want to get in it.
When we got a new puppy (Daisy) Maggie instantly went into mother mode. She would clean her, lick her ears and just watch over her. Daisy and Maggie always had a special connection. Eventually we got another dog too, Kirby. Once Kirby got here he kind of stole Daisy from Maggie. That is probably when Maggie really started becoming our dog out of the group of three. She was the only one that would continue to sleep with us until the end.
We eventually moved out to the country, and yes part of the reason was for Maggie. We moved to an area that was very rural and woodsy; Maggie’s perfect place. She loved it. She could go out and just hang out in the woods. And the funny thing was that she liked it because she could go to the bathroom in private by going into the woods. I know it sounds odd, but she really would make a point to go off into the woods to do her business. It was comical. We always knew she was a bit finicky but it really showed when she would do that. Maggie loved just being able to go outside and stroll around, and smell absolutely everything, and I mean everything. Sometimes it would take her forever to just get back to the front door, because she would stop and smell every little thing. It was funny to watch her. She liked the snow as well and would love to play in it. If it was too deep, she would just kind of hop through it. She would always end up with a little snow ball on her nose. She also loved the big deck on the house. She would love to go out on the deck whenever we were out there. She would stay out the whole time, just laying in the sun and enjoying the outdoors. Whenever we grilled she would sit there the whole time. One of her biggest days on the deck was our Memorial Day party 2009, when she basically stayed out on the deck for most of the party, and for Maggie to socialize with that many people for that length of time was a very big deal. She seemed at such peace when she was on the deck. She was our buddy.
I also had a lot of nicknames for Maggie: Moogs, Moogers, chubby cheekers, Baby girl, tub-a-lubs, fat butt, chunky cheese dog, lard butt, little heffer are just a few. As you can see I would use her weight frequently as a source for her nicknames. At one point she weighed 90lbs, which was bout 20lbs overweight. We eventually got her weight back down though. I hope she never was offended. It was out of love. I also sang many songs about Maggie. I don’t know if she liked them or not, but she got to hear them regardless. She was one special dog.
Eventually Maggie got older and it seemed to happen so quickly, just over the past couple of years. We noticed that she was having a harder time getting around. She was getting a little more grey on her face. She couldn’t jump up on the couches anymore. We eventually found out that she had severe arthritis and some hip dysplasia. Because of her age, doctors said that there really was no point in putting her through a surgery. We agreed. But we decided that we would put her on some medication and supplements to help make what we knew were her final months, more comfortable. It did seem to help her a little, but she still needed us. We would carry her up and down the stairs, even though she insisted she could do it on her own. We would help her up onto and off the couch. We had to help her a bunch in the end, but it made me love her even more.
Over the last year when we realized that we weren’t going to have her for much longer, we made modifications to the house and gave her whatever she wanted. What the heck, all the rules on how to feed and care for a dog were out the window now. We were going to make sure she would enjoy her final days. We added a runner from the living room to the front door so she could walk across the wood floor easier. We added additional wooden steps to the front door step and the back doggie door so that she could take smaller steps to get in and out of the house. She would have breakfast with Jodie every morning. And yes that means Jodie would actually make extra food in anticipation of Maggie having some too.
I had become so protective of Maggie, that I would get mad at anyone who did handle her correctly or would ignore her when she needed something. If it were even possible, I actually loved Maggie more than ever in her final months. I loved seeing her little face every time I came through the door. And if I didn’t see her, I would seek her out before I did anything else. It was so funny seeing her make her little shuffle out to greet us when we came home. She was not going to give up on us no matter what her condition and nor were we going to give up on her. I would have carried her up and down the stairs forever if that meant she could have stayed with us longer. But I also knew that eventually it wouldn’t be fair to her, knowing that she was in pain. She became my Baby Girl and I could not have loved anything more than I loved her. She needed me and I hope she knew how much I needed her. I would look forward to seeing her everyday and every night. We had her doggie bed right next to ours. On nights when she would go to bed with Jodie before me, I would always make sure that I kneeled down ever night, next to our bed and give her a kiss good night and tell I loved her. And the first night she went into the hospital this week, I naturally went to her bed, kneeled down, and realized she wasn’t there for the first time in over a year. That was very difficult to realize, because I was afraid that I knew what was coming.
Now we come to this week. We knew something was wrong Tuesday night when she seemed a little despondent and shaking a little. Then Wednesday morning she had breakfast like always with Jodie and took her bathroom break and all seemed well. Then I came home Wednesday night and went immediately to see her, as always, and I immediately knew something was wrong. That is when I called Jodie and decided that as soon as she got home we would take her to the hospital. We spent about 3 hours at the hospital with her that night and laid with her for a long time. I think we knew what was happening even though we wouldn’t say it. Eventually the doctor told us the news that we hoped not to hear, her liver seemed to be giving up. The doctor discussed some options to try and see if it would temporarily help, but she said that most likely anything we did would only help temporarily. The inevitable was upon us. This was something we thought we were prepared for but as it turns out we weren’t. Maggie spent the night there and we went to see her the next morning. She didn’t seem to be doing to good, but we thought it was only one night so maybe she didn’t have time for everything to take effect. We came back that night at about 10pm and we were horrified to see our Baby Girl so weak and despondent. We knew what was coming. We spent a couple of hours with her loving her, hugging her and laying on the floor with her and crying. We knew what was coming so we decided that we should go get our other two dogs, Kirby and Daisy, so that they could see her one more time and maybe brighten Maggie’s day if all possible. She did seem to react to the sight of her buddies and that was good to see. Eventually we knew what we had to do. We had the dogs stay with us to the end. I held Maggie so tight and Jodie would not stop rubbing her belly, until the very end. Jodie and I were balling. It was so tough to take. It was the toughest thing that I ever have had to do. I am still trying to convince myself that it was the right thing.
We miss her so much. It feels so empty without her. We can‘t even think about getting rid of her bed, dog bowl etc. Who will Jodie have breakfast with? Who will she go to sleep with at night? Maggie would always go to bed with her. There was such a special connection with Mag’s that I could never begin to explain. It was a connection that we only had with her, even though we love our other dogs. Maggie was with Jodie and me all but about 3 years of our time together. She was there almost from the beginning, and it isn’t fair that she is gone already. I know we will eventually move on, but I will never forget her. Her picture will always be in my office and around the house. She will always be in our hearts. We’ll love you forever Maggie.
Today, February 13, 2010, we took Kirby and Daisy to Edwardsville, to honor Maggie by walking her favorite trails like we used to. We hope that she was with running again like she did so many times before. It will never be the same without her and there will never be another Maggie, there could only be one.
With so much love,
Mommy and Daddy
Here are some more pics of our "Baby Girl"
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