That's Maggie as a puppy. Scott added her to his family (I was just a girlfriend at the time) around 1995. The dog was super intelligent and if not kept busy got into EVERYTHING!!! I remember living in a rental home that had the cutest picket fence. Maggie could've easily jumped it but she didn't. Instead she would knock one picket out and carry it around the yard. In Montana she was an avid snowdog. Scott took me snowmobiling one winter and she ran faithfully behind us. When I noticed she was lagging through the drifts, she rode tandem between us. She ended up with a scar on her chin because one of her favorite things was to "help" shovel. Which entailed her snapping at the snow as it was coming off the shovel. I can't remember which one of us accidently clocked her in the chin with the shovel on that particular toss.
She initially hated water. She wouldn't swim to save her life. Until one of Scott's friends did exactly that. Scott was out on a jet ski and back on the boat Maggie was beside herself running back and forth whining. So Scott's friend threw her into the lake. From then on we had the opposite problem, we had to keep her out of the water because she swam in the rivers until she was drinking them.
Once Scott and I made plans to go camping. Everything was all ready and loaded. This was when we lived in a trailer in Montana and the yard was unfenced. I was waiting for Scott to get back so we could jump in the truck and take off....I let Maggie out for just a moment. She disappeared for a half hour and when she returned she was covered. No, drenched in eu de cow feces. Scott got home to witness me spraying Maggie down with the hose.
Maggie moved from Montana to Washington and then to Colorado with us. She was our faithful guard dog when we went camping in the back of my S-10 Chevy pickup. Then as we upgraded to camping in a tent she got to go along with vet school and canine friends alike. And the hikes. I miss the hikes we took in Colorado with her. We briefly flirted with canine agility. One regret I wish I didn't have. I should've made the time for her. She would've kicked the butt out of any dog alive.
Maggie was there when we started our first real jobs, our marriage and our children. She allowed me to torture her for Halloween and Christmas photos. In Arizona she decided she was too prissy to get her feet wet on the grass and would tippy toe to try and keep them dry. If it was raining she would give us an exasperated look that seemed to say "I'm too old for this". But give her a ball to chase or a roller blade adventure and she would run until her pads were bloody. And the swimming pool was her playground and her recovery after her stroke ~3 years ago.
And there it is. Finally too old for anything. Maggie had been steadily declining in recent months and last night she let us know she was done. We honored her by letting her make the transition as peacefully as we could, surrounded by her canine and human family. She still had her mind about it but the body gave up on her. We miss you Maggie. So does little Aubrey who asked this morning in all her childhood innocence, "Where's Maggie?"
Bye-bye Maggie. Love you.
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