Maggie is a little dog that I pulled out of a high kill shelter via a dog rescue and we were going to foster her until she was adopted, as was the norm for us back at this time. Her shelter picture was not a pretty one, and even though most rescues snatched up the little dogs first, they all skipped over Maggies. Let me back up a bit though... 'Maggie' was actually MT04 and listed as a neutered male. I decided to call 'him' Wally. I liked that name.
I picked up 'Wally' on a sunny Saturday, along with 3 other girls, a Yellow Lab named Gunner, a Chocolate Lab named Gabby, and a Black Lab/Rottie mix named Gracie. I brought all 4 dogs home with me to foster, strait from the shelter. That's how I rolled back in those days. 'Wally' sat on the front seat with me, curled up in a blanket. The first thing I noticed was that 'Wally' was missing a penis. Well we could fix that. Not the penis part, but the name part. I decided on 'Twiggy' during that long ride home. Twiggy had ears that were way to big for her head, and they stood strait up. And she had little basset legs that turned outwards.
Twiggy and Red were immediately in love. It didn't take but an instant. It also didn't take more than an instant for Red to tell me that her name was not 'Twiggy', it was Maggie. She was a Maggie. We had her spayed and got her healthy. She was a bit overweight and we noticed she was kind of wobbly on her back end. The vet told us she had luxating patellas, which is where her kneecaps dislocate. Maintaining a healthy weight would improve her mobility, but there may or may not be a need for surgery in the future.
After a few months, we had a wonderful adopter for Maggie, as well as the other girls I'd brought home. She took Maggie home and we brought in the next crew of dogs needing a safe place. During that time, Red missed Maggie. It was obvious he was sad she had left. He connected with a lot of the dogs that we fostered, but none like he had with Maggie.
After 6 months we got a surprise email. Maggie's adopter had to return her because she was moving. Joy! (for us, anyways). We got Maggie back and we were overjoyed to have miss wiggley pants back. We put her back up for adoption. We had briefly discussed adopting her, but it just wasn't the right time. After some months, a lovely couple and their 5yo son came along and again our little girl was adopted. This time after she left, we both felt we'd made a mistake. We shouldn't have let her go. We let her go once and it hurt us both, to let her go twice just seemed assenine. We were idiots. But we couldn't take little MagPie from her new little boy. Over the next year and a half, we would think of Maggie. Something would remind us of her and we'd smile and be sad for a little bit. But then life would happen and we'd move on. I even had little dreams that we'd get her back one day. Even though we knew we'd lost our chance.
Excitement was probably my first emotion. But it was swiftly followed by fear. I knew we would need to adopt Maggie. But there was no way Red would let us have 4 dogs. I thought of our recent addition. The thought of returning Kirby refused to register in my head. I got home and brought little Maggie inside. Red was in his recliner and I came up behind him and dropped her in his lap. Surprise!
Anyways, after many discussions, we made a tough decision. Thanksgiving Day 2009, we officially adopted Maggie. She's a great little dog. She's a little nervous in certain situations, its hard to know what her life has been like. She had been stuck in a revolving door for many years. She had an owner at some point before I ever met her. Either she was lost or she was dumped at that shelter. It's difficult for me imagine her sitting in a concrete kennel with barking and growling and stainless steel food pans being knocked around and echoing around her. She's a sweet girl who loves to cuddle. She's now comfortable and I think she knows she's finally found her forever family. She's come out of her shell tremendously and when its time to go outside or eat dinner, she paws the ground or the couch or our arms like a bull because she's so excited! She loves to wrestle with the big dogs and she's fabulous with everybody. We cannot in our wildest dreams imagine why 3 families gave her up. She is not kenneled, ever. She sleeps in our bedroom and has free reign of the house while were gone. Her and Sylvester have even been caught napping together. Maggie is happy and wiggley and we love her so much. Her and Red are still in love. They nap together all the time and are rarely found apart from each other.
Welcome home, Maggie Pie.
