Maggie Mae Salome Labradoodle Extraordinaire March 20, 2008

So, Rell and I don’t have any children…but we do have a dog…who we very much treat like a child.  Maggie Mae is our 2 year old Labradoodle.  She is my first dog ever!  And really, I don’t know how I lucked out in getting such a perfect dog on my first go round!

Two years ago, Rell drove all the way to Tuscon, something like 3 1/2 hours away, to pick up Maggie Mae.  She was the only girl puppy left.  He arrived to pick her up and began playing with all the puppies.  There was one in particular that kept coming up to him, snuggling up and just loving on him in general.  It must have been puppy fate, because that puppy was Maggie Mae.  He made the long drive home with Maggie Mae curled up in the front seat on his jacket.  She threw up three times on the way home!

Rell gets home and we play with her for a bit, and then of course, we need to get her food.  So Rell says he is going to the store to get her food, etc. and I beg him not to leave me alone with the puppy because “I’m scared of her!” To this day, he still brings that up.  I’ll be snuggling with Maggie Mae on the couch, and in a squeamish voice he’ll squeal “But I’m scared of her!”

She’s pretty scary, right? 

I bring this all up because of something that happened with Maggie Mae last night.  It amazes me how much personality this dog has.  I guess this might be something lots of other people figured out years ago, as most people got their first dog at something closer to age 5, not age 27!

Maggie Mae loves to fetch.  She quite proficient at it too.  Her new favorite is the tennis ball.  We tell her “Maggie, get your ball” and she runs out into the yard and grabs it, brings it, and after a little coaxing, will even drop.  Then she’ll sit and wait for the toss.  She’s so funny because we’ll tell her to sit, and she sort of back up 5 or 6 feet while squat-sitting, as if to get a head start on the ball.  She’s trained very well (if I do say so myself - I taught her to shake and high five) and we hardly ever coax her to do her “tricks” with treats, but lately, she’s been going nuts whenever she hears the word treat.  So after every five or six tosses, Rell will say TREAT really loud and she’ll come running back fast as can be and she’ll drop her ball, sit and wait to get her treat.

Well, last night Rell and Maggie Mae were tossing and as she was coming back with the ball, Maggie Mae saw Rell reach into his pocket, which apparently she knows means treat, and hauled back…..but apparently, she had to go potty.  But not wanting to waste the time of sniffing out a spot in the grass, she decided to come sit on the patio and wait for her treat, but to also pee on the patio at the same time.  No wasting time when it comes to treats! 

We’ve also decided that in addition to treat, our dog also knows the word GO.  Maggie Mae LOVES car rides, and we take her with us whenever we can.  Last night, we needed to go to Target to pick up a birthday card for Rell’s dad (I also scored a 25 pack of multi colored fine tip Sharpies normally $18 for $4.50 - SWEET!)  we were having a casual conversation at the end of dinner that went something like this:

Rell: “we need to get my dad a card”

Meg: “Target or Walmart?”

Rell: “Target”

Meg: “ok, when do you want to go?”

Maggie: GOING NUTS because she heard the word go.  Starts chasing her tail and jumping up and down by the door. 

And jingle a car key or two and the nuts-ness intensifies! 

I love my dog!  Who would have ever though - Meg - a dog lover!*

*And just to clarify, by dog lover, I really only mean Maggie Mae lover, because I am still not crazy about other people’s dogs……..

Maggie Mae at Christmas this year (don’t make fun of my funny little tree - we have a little house!)   More than one of those presents under the tree is for her.