Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Happy 2 year anniversary to Maggie!!!

Two years ago today, our sweet girl Maggie came to live with us. Here is the blog I posted when we got her - here . What a crazy two years it has been!
Maggie turned out to be nothing that we expected. We were told that she was part Australian Shepherd, part grey hound. As she grew, we realized that she is mostly pitbull. That is fine with us. We were not looking for a pitbull, we wanted a dog that would run with Trevor. Maggie runs, but not the distances we were hoping for in a new dog.
When Maggie came to live with us, we were not prepared to have a puppy in our house. All our animals were older and had settled down years earlier. Maggie was full of energy and none of us knew what to do with her.
Maggie was also very timid and afraid of everything. The first month we had her, she would not go out into the yard by herself. When she needed to go to the bathroom, one of us would have to go outside and actually stand in the middle of the yard with her so she would not be afraid.
We walked her and ran her. She would go with us on our Sunday runs. We'd do a couple "Maggie miles" before our long runs. Maggie would stay in the car while we ran. She went everywhere with us.
Maggie had some anxiety issues and those were manifested in destructive chewing. Maggie destroyed everything - the inside of our car, our couches, every toy she ever touched, blankets....if she was near it, she destroyed it. We were slow learners and finally started to kennel her when she was alone in the car. The final straw was when she tore out the entire back flooring of the car and the wires that connected the fuel pump. My car wouldn't start. Trevor came and spliced the wires back together. Then, while I was driving, Maggie was in the back seat chewing on the wires again and the car died because she chewed through them. Oh Maggie!!!
Luckily, neither of us cared about our stuff, we just wanted to be sure she was safe. We took her to the dog park to socialize her, we did puppy obedience classes, we took her every social place we could to get her used to being around people.
About six months after we got Maggie, Buster came to live with us and he really brought her out of her shell. She gained so much confidence from being the resident dog and showing a new pup the way we do things. She still gets nervous around new people, but she's getting better.
This doggie is the sweetest, snuggle bug ever. She just wants to be next to us. She loves to lay on the couch, curl up next to us and have the blanket put over her head. She likes to be covered up.
She can run through the yard faster than any dog I have ever seen. It makes me believe she may actually be part greyhound!

Maggie has turned into a really nice, happy dog. She smiles, literally, when she sees us. Its the craziest thing, but when we get home and she sees us, she will run to us, tail wagging and big smile on her face. She and Buster run with us a couple times a week. She does good unless its warm out, then we have to go slower. She's very sensitive to the heat.

We love Maggie. She has been a great addition to our family, she entertains us with all her little quirks. We can't imagine a life without her and I can't believe she's been part of our family for two years now. She's growing up fast and we are trying to enjoy every minute.

1 comment:

Tiffa said...

So cute! I just love the photo of Maggie & buster! They are the cutest. I love how you guys consider your pets as part of the family. If there were more people around like you & Trevor, there would be less dogs ending up in shelters & in abusive situations.