Miss Maggie, Maggie Girl, Madame Maggie, Mags, whatever you call her, she is my beloved dog. She is my constant companion and is the craziest dog I have ever had the pleasure of having. She is my love and my family and she is OCD. She has given me such pleasure over the years and constantly makes me laugh and sometimes aggrevates the stew out of me (especially Brian). I think often about that crazy dog and how thankful I am that she ended up with me, because had she ended up in the hands of anyone else, she probably wouldn't be here today. She has her issues, she is VERY protective of her food (thankfully she eats it very fast) so usually we don't have to worry about this and she is somewhat protective of certain items of hers as well, for instance her bones - I don't get these for her much any more because she won't let anyone near them, even me. She doesn't like any other dogs, which makes walking her around the neighborhood hard, not impossible though. And I know that good dogs do not display this behavior, but I love her unconditionally. Can anyone say Dog Whisperer? She does love people though, unless she doesn't know you and you are trying to break in, then she will bark her head off as we have learned when someone broke into Brian's truck.
Maggie waits at the front gate in the backyard for me to get home every day and whenever she sees me coming, whether from work or from walking Hayden - she takes off running. She runs a few laps around the yard. My mom and I like to think she is making sure no bad things are in the yard for us. She also does this whenever I walk outside to say hi or to feed her. Craziest dog ever!
Before Brian joined us, Maggie was my EVERYTHING. She slept with me every night, woke me every morning and had free range of the house. She stayed outside during the day while I was at work, but if it ever started raining I took off work and went home to be with her, just so she won't have to sit outside in the pouring rain all day. Whenever I had to travel for work, my Mom would have to come and dogsit for me, this meant she had to spend the night at my house so Maggie could sleep inside - I didn't want her to be all alone. I also made my family promise that if something ever happened to me that Maggie would be able to live with them.
Since those long ago days, Maggie's place at the top of the throne isn't quite as high as it used to be. Things have slowly changed for her. First Brian and I got married and she lost her place in the bed (this didn't happen overnight, but I didn't think it was fair that Brian kept having to get on the couch in the middle of the night because Maggie kept pushing him out). Then we moved to a new house and she wasn't allowed in the house, at least not all the time. I remember being pregnant (and very sick) and Brian went out of town for a few days, Maggie and I had so much fun, she stayed in the house with me the whole time and we laid on the couch together and watched movies and ate lots of junk food. And finally Hayden was born and suddendly I didn't have as much time for her anymore. Not that she was neglected, but maybe she became less human and more dog (probably a good thing).
Right before Hayden was born I read and forwarded an article to Brian about all the things that will change once your first child arrives. One of the items it listed was "your dog will no longer be your baby, she will become just a dog" - I cried when I read that because I knew it was true.
She has taken everything in stride and really loves her new place outside, she actually prefers it. I have still insisted over the years that Maggie comes in every night in the winter because it is too cold for her. She now sleeps on the floor right beside my side of the bed and this makes us all very happy.
Hayden LOVES and ADORES Maggie - she says Maggie all the time. First word out of her mouth in the morning and continues to say it all day. Maggie doesn't get it, even though I tell her all the time how much Hayden loves her, she could care less. I do have to tell you though, that Maggie has taken to Hayden (she just doesn't want me to know). She sleeps in front of Hayden's bedroom window at night (protecting Hayden of course) and just the other day an afternoon thunderstorm popped up and it was raining hard and thundering loud, Hayden was at the window, as usual, and Maggie was asleep by the back door. Maggie noticed Hayden was at the window and slowly got up from where she was laying and moved over to the window. She stood guard in front of Hayden until the storm passed! I wanted desparetly to get a picture, but no camera could have done it justice.
I take care of Maggie, I feed her and give her water, I pet her, play fetch, and groom her - she is mine and this makes me happy. Sometimes though I am wrapped up in doing other things with Hayden and ask Brian to feed her for me, he always does, sometimes he jokingly complains and I quickly tell him that Maggie was here before him and if he keeps it up she will be here after he is gone too :). I know he secretly loves Maggie and don't get me wrong from the above text Maggie adores Brian. She is pretty possesive of him too - she thinks he belongs to her and not me.
I didn't intend for this to be the world's longest blog post about a crazy dog, I just wanted everyone to see how much that OCD dog means to me. I would be lost without her. Heaven help me when the day comes that God decides her time here with me is up, I just hope we have many more years with Maggie girl.
