[Dailydrool] My good, good girl Maggie

[Donna Lindy]

Well I said I was going to tell you about my good girl, Maggie.  She is our only hound right now and will be the last, at least for a while.  We fostered Maggie for BHRG starting in August 
of 2015, a few months after we lost Crazie Gracie.  Bosley and Sunny were still here and they tolerated the newcomer very well.  Maggie was much loved in her previous home but her
Dad had a failed hip replacement and could no longer care for her.  I arrived at the adoption day just after he had tearfully relinquished Maggie back to the rescue. I was told he was crying 
and had to have the paperwork read to him. The volunteers were in tears and Maggie was just standing there, obviously distressed and drooling buckets.  Every time the door opened her tail 
would wag and then sag when it wasn’t her owner.  It was just heartbreaking. I immediately volunteered to foster her but since I was not an approved foster I could not take her home with me.  
They did do a home visit the next day and as soon as I was approved, Maggie came to our house and slowly settled in.  We adopted her 3 months later at the BHRG Bash.

Maggie is such a smart girl. You can practically see the wheels in her brain turning.  We have gates to keep the dogs out of certain areas of the house and she figured those out in no
time, then proceeded to teach Sunny how to open them and then YaYa when she came. She studies and learns routines and never misses her meals, treat times, meds or eye drops. Yes, 
this dog comes to me for eye drops.  She got glaucoma about a year ago and was the most stoic dog I have ever seen.  Her eye pressure was 40 when she was diagnosed and yet she
had been in the waiting room for 2 hours schmoozing with the smaller dogs and their owners.  Since about Halloween Maggie has been battling a corneal ulcer. The pain they cause is so
obvious; it is just awful to see the misery in a dog from one of those mean old ulcers.  Maggie seems to understand that eye drops help her. Recently we were doing 8 kinds of eye drops on 
a really crazy schedule that meant different drops at 5 different times a day but she knew when they were due and waited patiently through all of them. Never has she once been difficult about them.
Last night, she was headed for the doggie door and didn’t quite make it, leaving a trail of poop behind her.  She came and got me so I would know it was there.  My good girl. 

We are pretty sure Maggie is at least 14 now.  She’s blind in her glaucoma eye and mostly blind in other eye. She hates being outside; we think because of her blindness she may not feel as
secure. Maggie has horrible arthritis. It’s even in her ribs.  Her back end is wobbly, she has congestive heart failure and a heart murmur.  Recently she had a vascular growth removed from her chest
using a local anesthetic. Then there’s that corneal ulcer that finally is almost gone now.  But she still comes to you to shake paws before she has her dinner, she still sits on Bill’s foot so he’ll scratch
her butt with his feet, she still ducks her head and sort of smiles at you when you acknowledge her.  I am her person and most of the time you will find her in or on a dog bed close to me. If
I go into the kitchen, Maggie comes with me and watches every move I make.  When I make her chow, she puts her head right next to my knee and we do the polka back and forth to the fridge and then the 
microwave. She reminds me of Stevie Wonder when she bobs around while I make her Nupro gravy for her bowl and she eats with great pleasure every time. Maggie barks at Bill to get her dental stick for
her after he has his lunch. He says she’s bossing him around. Well that’s his job besides the butt scratches and sharing his cheese with her.  She will forsake me for cheese with Dad every time but just 
for the time it takes to get that treat. Then she’s right back with me.

We so love this old girl that still manages to give us her all.  I know the handwriting is on the wall with all the issues she has.  We’re spoiling her as best we can and will until the day she has to leave.
She’s such a trooper with everything she’s been through, especially the last year.  Maggie just keeps on trucking.  By the way, Maggie waits patiently for me while I clean the kitchen after we’ve all had 
dinner.  I am the one who gives her her after dinner treat.  But she doesn’t bark at me.  I’m her person.  And she is my good, good girl.

Donna, drool fueler for just Maggie these days