There's kookiness in that freight train!!!

Like any lovable being on this planet, Maggie has her share of weird little antics that cause us to double take at what we aren't quite sure she has just done! Playtime, which is whenever she decides, comes in a variety of forms but almost always involves not one but two objects planted firmly in her mouth. It never makes any sense what those two are and invariably they are completely different, as in a squeaky toy and a ball, a ball and a blanket that seldom rests in the same place twice in any given week, a blanket and a freshly folded piece of clean laundry, more often than naught, someone's underwear!!!

The idea of the game is to fight like crazy with her over one of the pieces she has a hold of and throw it along the hallway; simply waiting for her to drop one item has little play value and is usually met with a disdainful look implying, "Are we playing or aren't we?" So the battle continues with renewed zeal and as the ball is launched down the hallway, the blanket has to be gripped tightly as she prances (yes, we have a dog that prances! Perhaps we should saddle her!!!) after said ball!

Now have I mentioned her energy level as this pastime unfolds? Whether it's the retriever in her or simply that she's a dog, the chase is on, the focus is pinpoint, the likelihood of the toy's escape, nil and NOTHING will stand in her way!!! (Editorial note..... throwing squeaky toys and balls makes some sense but throwing blankets somehow lacks impact and I will profess that it makes no sense to me!!!) So you have to know, with everything that's within her she wants that object back in her mouth. Her intensity has its weaknesses as she's facing me one moment and with the ball rolling past her in the next heartbeat, her attempt at keeping an eye on the trajectory can have her smacking her head against the near wall, followed by an instantaneous adjustment to carry on prancing after the fleeing felon!!! It would make for good video coverage and needless to say a cringing audience as she wallops herself and carries on as if to say, "I'm alright, what are you laughing at???"

Puppy School

This is a place to socialize your dog, learn what you can to improve on your skills as a master, teach your puppy the accepted ways of healing, staying and so on.

Now Maggie was rather accepting of the idea that this place had a whole pack of animals and their masters which by the way is not a word in her vocabulary, she being the queen of all she surveys!!!!

Surely these fellow four legged friends were here for her amusement but why was Alana pulling on her collar and using a commanding tone repeatedly with her? Being new to the surroundings, Maggie decided to go with the flow and assess things as they unfolded. This of course was totally acceptable to Alana who proudly went through the paces as the teacher instructed. Now being a puppy and all, Maggie allowed distraction to take over which automatically calls for increased energy to flow through her as her desires to sniff out the young studly puppy in front of her not to mention the antics of the less behaved, masters and dogs alike were of huge interest to her!!! After all, she had been good for a decent length of time so the reward was to "have at" her newly found friends!!!

Alana's gentle tugs along with her firm yet calm assertive commands gave way to a full on one arm workout as the leash's tensile strength was put to the test!!! Maggie's determination matched the opposing force and desires of Alana to the point where the teacher paused and noted the fact that Maggie was somewhat high spirited. This developed into her later commenting that Maggie was manic to which Alana agreed through gritted teeth and a now overworked bicep!!!

Great, so the dog that belonged to a Principal's family had made a name for herself as the most determined at being disruptive in class!!! Thanks Maggie.....humility comes in many forms!!! Class dismissed!!!

The great escape!!!!...or The Fence...Part 3

Sunday morning, another fall day after heavy rains, the back yard looked as if hurricane Ike had paid a visit!!! We could put up a sign saying "Maggie's yard sale" but we know she'd take great exception to having any of her treasures sold off!!! So instead we get the garbage can out and begin the task of eliminating the past week's household foraging....three single socks, none of them matching, sales receipts whisked from the counter top, amply chewed, now sodden from the rains and night dew, an unclaimed insole from a random shoe, a shoe strap from another of yesterday's shoes, scattered bones repeatedly the item of the day, feverishly worked on, buried, resurrected, diligently brought into the house for our approval, returned to the back yard hoping some night marauder would confiscate them, bits of wood from goodness knows where in all sizes, shapes and degrees of annihilation; the list goes on!!!!!

Back in the kitchen, working on a week's supply of pancake making when it dawns on me that our royal highness is no where to be seen. Hhhmmmm, "Maggie" "Maggie" "MAGGIE!!!".....nothing but silence. The gate to the living room is still in place as is the one for the stairway. Basement...no, garage.....no, front yard....no, back yard ......no???? Repeated calling in the back yard, a look over the fence into our neighbor's yard (reference The Fence parts one and two!!!) and still no Maggie??? Then from the Dixons' side of the fence, I hear the jangle of her dog tags. The kids are dispatched to return her to our yard and survey where she escaped from. Brendan returns to say he can't find any place where the escape happened. Finishing pancake making, I venture out to check the fence and come up empty.

Meanwhile, Maggie's happy to be back in familiar surroundings, lavishing all the attention, smiling at the fuss being shown her, indicating we've missed wiping one of her paws and now is in full play mode which brings a collective sigh from all of us!!!

Still perplexed at her latest undertaking in life, I go out and check the gate on one side of the house and the under construction partition of the fence on the other side of the house and find all is secure. It dawns on me then that our mischievous one has taken her departure once more!!! Looking more closely at the fence on the Dixons' side, I'm left wondering if at the back where all the blackberry vines are, has she somehow ferreted through to make her escape??? Pruning shears and a machete in hand, I attack the bramble with great passion (reminiscent of the prince in Sleeping Beauty readying himself to take on Malificent and save his princess!!!) ( okay, now that is funny!!!!) and sure enough as the vines are whacked and hacked away, there lying exposed is a hole in the fence large enough to accomodate the latest getaway!!!

Hammer, nails, multiple boards and a rather large chunk of concrete from the construction part of the fence has the yard secure once more!!! Her nibs having been recaptured and closed in until all was complete, came bounding out, immediately surveyed the newest addition to the fence, employed her nose to sniff out any possibility of a weakness in the now wall that met her and moved on to play at other things!!!

I have total assurance as surely as the blackberry vines will overtake that portion of our yard again, Maggie will find yet another means to challenge her nemesis.....the fence!!! :)

As the months slip by.....

Time flies when you have a puppy!!!!! :)



Whisked away from her family at such a young age, leaving her mother, brothers and sisters in the country and moving on to a suburban family who were at the onset of loving her to pieces, laughing at her endlessly as her antics gushed from her fountain of youth!!!!!

Well there was no toilet paper so I have to use something handy!!!! Would you help me shred this? I find it’s so practical that way!!!!

Oh there's entirely too much water here that completely reminds me of bath time!!!!
If only they'd forget the part about me being a retriever!!! How can I get out of this one???

You know, I'm getting too big to carry around but it still feels really good to be to be cuddled!!! Why does she keep on calling me a sausage; what I'd like is to have a bunch of them to munch on as we speak!!! Hmmm, what's that over on that counter, a little to the left please!!! Stop smiling at that silver box and open the fridge!!! Oh that smells good.......

So this is what it means to be a teenager???!!!! They get me up too early in the morning, I get larger portions, get to stay up later, get to lay down whenever I want and I can reach up onto the counter whenever they're not looking!!! The sandwich was good, the cooked chicken was great and oh that steak that I took was amazing, totally!!! They sure get righteous about me taking that stuff!!! I've got to learn how to eat faster!!! What'll they do when they learn I've been drinking their wine!!!!

This is the life!!! My masters have their favorite spot and so do I but they sure get riled when they find me here. This thing about time out isn't all that bad but I just had that spot nicely warmed up and it's so soft!!! The part I don't get is what's all the fuss about obedience school??? They keep mentioning it to me when I jump on all the people who come over to play with me and when I play bite them, I hear it over and over. It usually follows all the "NO's" and "DOWNS", so I sit down and then they say'Good Girl" and everything seems fine but someone always mentions this school thing again!!! I hope there's lots of food there. That reminds me, I'm hungry!!! :)

Oh those humble
beginnings.....taken from her home , mother and siblings in the country, settling into a new home where a bounty of love was awaiting her along with the frantic calling of "NO !!!, OFF!!!, DOWN!!! STOP IT!!! GGOOOODDDD GGGIIIRRRLLLL!!!!







At the shoreline; there sure is a lot of water here, none of it is in a bowl!!! This looks too much like a big bath, I mean a really big bath!!! Do they expect me to go in there??? Why does the water keep coming after me??? I'm still unsure of all this!!!










I'm out of here!!!! I've only had one bath, the trauma is still totally ingrained in me and even though my people thought they were doing the right thing, I'm really uneasy with all this water!!! Please don't tell them I'm a retriever, they might actually forget and I won't have to go near this stuff again!!!!!

Vacations and oh, the heat....

Puppies are adaptable, they can take on the world, writing their own script, overcoming all obstacles, charging headlong into the weirdest of situations and excelling at the most unlikely of outcomes!!! So with some family members away on vacation and some still at home, given explicit instructions as to how Maggie was to be treated……exercised, played with, fed and occupied for the week we were away, it should be a breeze for all concerned.

Well, it just so happened that the working members of the family encountered their heaviest week of the season and worked longer than normal hours. The heat hit close to record temperatures and Maggie’s routine suffered as much as she did in the heat. Left to her own devices to manage a now empty house for untold hours, she went on a protest activity roster of sorts and decided the carpet on the stairs needed replacing. Her newly arrived adult teeth worked with great precision as she began the task of removing the carpet closest to her mouth as she lay on the cool tiles of the front foyer. Fortunately, as a puppy, she is readily distracted by the slightest noise, sound and flutter coming from the backyard and chose to leave her as yet unfinished work for loftier pursuits!!!

The heat took its toll on her nonetheless as the 100 degree weather carried on day after day until her protest took on the form of relieving herself wherever she felt the calling and in such a way that easily can be interpreted as her defiance at the lack of attention shown her. Text messages arrived, detailing the “crazy dog” that had replaced our mischievous but wonderful princess of a puppy. The hounds of hell had visited and exchanged our Maggie with an other dimensional entity no one knew how to deal with.

So with great anxiety, we packed up for our four hour trip home wondering all the while how we had created this nightmare and how to offset it should it happen again next year. We arrived home amazed to still see the house standing, no neighbors amassing on the front lawn in protest, no yellow tape stretched across the door, barring entry to the maelstrom within and no one wearing HAZMAT suits to ward off the plague that surely must have encompassed the lower floor of the house!!!

Maggie met us at the door, tail wagging, crying for joy as much as puppies can cry for joy and looking at us as if to say, “Where have you been; I’ve really missed you!!!” We scrutinized the workings of the reshaped carpet, headed to the cupboard for cleaning supplies to further scrub the affected areas of Maggie’s Picasso- esque creations on the dining room carpet and began the task of unloading the car from our vacation. Washer and dryer going, attention given lavishly to Maggie and a change in the weather system approaching, we settled in to the day to day activities leading up to the return to work and as cooler days and some welcomed rain fell, Maggie’s persona resumed its regal position as somewhat spoiled(who am I kidding???) lady of the manor!!! (Point the fan this way, if you please and more ice while you’re at it!!! :)

Didn't I just....... ?????

Maggie has a wonderful alpha personality about her that usually brings a smile to our faces as she brings us her latest vanquished object, be it a small quilted blanket, a discarded shawl from generations past, her most recent bone, amply chewed and dirt covered and all are presented with the urgency and intensity of a young child, deliberate in her movements that end soundly in our laps as these massive paws descend upon us! Her look is one of pride and she clearly wants us to join in the fun and celebrate her emergence of The retriever!!!

Her dominance of our household is without question as her repeated efforts to be queen of the manor is demonstrated over and over again, in a multitude of ways. It doesn’t matter whether we’re grabbing our first cup of coffee or ready to crawl in for the night, Maggie has her own plan as to how the universe should unfold!!!

One of her current assertions is that food in all its descriptions, flavours, scents or odours is worthy of her sampling or more correctly, is hers for the taking!!! Today’s sandwich, freshly made with great care and attention, was summarily whisked away as her jaws met the top of the counter with just the right amount of leverage to secure half the sandwich. Now the interesting thing is, she has the sense that what she’s doing will meet (meat) with considerable outcry from us and as those determined chops of hers land the sandwich (in this case), her legs are already in motion for the door, through the screen, across the patio and onto the back lawn as rather indignant adults attempt to “retrieve” the sandwich as it disappears from sight!!!!!! You know there’ll be more to come………. :)