Maggie . . . our little faker! That's right, she's a faker!!

When Maggie comes to the top of stairs she goes into "freeze dance" mode - - and then we carry her 50lb butt down the steps that must be so frightful for our little angel. Our vet and trainer said we're doing the right thing because she's still traumatized. Our backs are killing us, but it's worth it for our sweet pup.

Well, she's been faking her stair-phobia. She's not afraid of stairs - - she's a DIVA!

Here's the scene: Today I was walking back into the garage after disposing Maggie's latest "special delivery" in the garbage when I saw her RUN DOWN THE DECK STAIRS ACROSS THE YARD AND BACK UP TO THE DECK.

What?!?!? Had I taken too many pain killers to relieve my aching back? No, I checked - - two ibuprofen does not cause hallucinations. I was speechless! I was mad at myself for not having the camera ready for this joyous occasion!! I couldn't wait to tell Steve!!!

I gave Maggie a treat and a tons of praise. She looked at me with a blank stare (OK, that's her usual look, but this was a very special moment).

And that's it. Maggie hasn't walked down stairs since. She's returned to "freeze dance" mode at the tops of stairs. Please pass the ibuprofen because it looks like our backs aren't going to get relief anytime soon.

Who's being trained? Maggie or Us??

The Magster has had an eventful couple of days.

Sunday was in the mid-30's, so it felt like a heat wave (not to worry, the temperate dropped and we got a few more inches of snow last night. It's never going to end.)

We went for a long walk with Maggie, and decided to check out the middle school that we'd learned about the day before. Of course, there were no other dogs or people there, since normal people don't go to play at the park when it's frozen over and 35, but it was nice to have it all to ourselves. We walked Maggie to the far side of the school lot near the fence and let go of her leash. She didn't run off, so that was a good start to this experiment. She didn't do anything extraordinary, but she did keep an eye on us and after she ventured far enough that we called out to her, she came back to us. A good first outing on her own.

We have a picture from our yard, so you can see outside she's a very different dog - standing upright and very much alert and curious.

Also, I've heard some comments about the lack of photos with me in them, so I've included a photo that Kat snapped later that afternoon. Maggie and I were both tuckered out and took a nap on the floor.

Now, Monday night (last night) was by far the funniest thing we've seen so far from Maggie. We took her out for her final bathroom trip for the evening. The snow was coming down pretty hard, and it was one of those really wet snows with the big flakes. We wanted to see what, if anything Maggie would do with the snow falling, so we took her leash off in the backyard and just stood on the stairs to the deck watching her.

She started off slowly, doing her usual walk this way a few steps then walk back that way a few steps, sniff here, repeat. Finally she took care of business, and then we saw her playful nature start to come out. She would climb one of the small snow piles in our yard, leap at a chunk of snow then do a 180 and run off. She repeated this a few times, with a couple brief rounds of "snap at my own tail". She was just getting started though. She eventually was running all over the yard, up and down snow mounds, kicking up snow all over the place. She would have looked perfectly natural on top of a snowboard zipping around the yard.

I wish we'd gotten video of her running around, you just wouldn't believe it. It was so great to see that she had such a playful nature , one that we're sure will eventually come out more regularly. After about 20-30 minutes of fun, poor Maggie had wiped herself out, but for once she truly was just having fun.

This isn't the best photo, but at the end of her romp around the yard last night, a chunk of snow fell off of the house and landed right on top of Maggie's head.

We decided not to put Maggie in the crate today and instead put her in the master bath. We wanted to see if she could be trusted for an extended period of time in a larger room, and figured there wasn't much damage she could do in there. I'm pretty sure if we put a chalk outline around Maggie, she'd still be in it when we got home from work - so all was safe in the bathroom. We'll keep doing this for a while and see how it goes.

We just met with a dog trainer this evening, Jeff Millman (http://www.jeffmillman.com/). Jeff couldn't have been nicer. He came to our house, and in a little over an hour really helped us - both by giving us useful tips for helping Maggie and making us feel better about things we've been doing (or not been doing). We didn't really work with Maggie on anything, this was more a training session for us.

We were mainly concerned that we were doing the right thing carrying Maggie around, bringing her food/water, standing her up by propping her legs up, etc. Jeff assured us that we weren't in any way babying her or hampering her development and that she just needs some TLC and to take everything very slowly. If that means carrying her or bringing the food dish to her, then that's fine. He also gave us some great tips on using positive reinforcement to help train her to respond to commands to stand up and cooperate on getting outside.

So, for now we'll work on the baby steps to get Maggie to understand she's in a good place and it will all be OK. Depending on where that takes us we'll possibly look into more training once she comes out of her shell more.

"Really?" "Oh!" "How's that going?" Those are the usual responses I get from people when I tell them that we got a dog. I know what you're thinking . . . "How is 'Monica Geller' going to deal with a dog?"

When Steve tells people we got a dog the usual response is "Congratulations!" or "Awesome!". And then there are the people who ask, "How's Kat doing with that?"

Touche.

Sure I'm a little obsessive with the Swiffer® to remove the dog hair, and I'm still adjusting to the idea of patina on our new hardwood floors courtesy of Maggie's nails, but I'm so in love with her it's worth it all.

Maggie is somewhat of a neatnik herself. She likes her daily brushing, she avoids puddles on walks, and she stands patiently as we wipe her paws after she's been outside. We're a match made in heaven ;-).

Steve and I didn't just wake up one morning and decide to adopt a dog. It's something we had been discussing for nearly a year. With our youthful days of partying behind us, and our new house having a fenced yard we decided the time was right. The fact that we ended up with the perfect dog was pure luck!

The sun is shining! This morning we took a nice long family walk around the neighborhood. As always, Maggie was great on the leash (which makes it easy to take a mug of java along on our walks).

The hardest part of walking with Maggie is the ice. The sound of ice crushing under our feet or us slipping on ice sends her into a frozen state. Most people are afraid of falling on the ice, but we're afraid of startling Maggie. As you can see from the photos, the walk really tired Maggie out. Steve is also "resting his eyes" on the couch ;-).

Yesterday's walk included a very embarrassing moment for me (Kat). As we were stopped at a busy intersection waiting for the light to change I reached down to pet Maggie and she cowered in fear. I had images of everyone in their cars grabbing their cell phones to call Animal Control to report an abused dog. Maggie doesn't mind being petted, but she doesn't like any sudden moves.


On our walks we've been on the look-out for a friendly looking dog (and owner) to introduce to Maggie to see how she reacts. We start scouting dogs as soon as we spot them blocks away, but rule most out for being too big, too small, too hyper, etc., and then we alter our course to avoid the faulted pet and owner. Well, today we came upon a three year old male Wheaten Terrier with a very attentive owner. Right there on the corner Maggie had her first play-date! "Uneventful" is the word that best describes this momentous occasion. The Wheaten Terrier sniffed Maggie, and she stood frozen in her tracks. We'll keep trying.

We did learn from the other owner that when the weather warms up dogs often play together on weekends at the local middle school. We've logged that info in our "Maggie" file for future reference.

Hi, everyone! It's Kat - - a.k.a. Maggie's Mom ;-) This is my first blog, so here goes . . .

First, I want to thank Steve for creating this blog. I re-read it every day and have to wipe away the tears each time. In just over a week Maggie has brought tons of love and happiness to our home and hearts. I hope she knows how much we love her.

It's official, Steve and I are "Yuppy Puppy Parents". We scrutinize every food label, inspect every toy, watch every episode of the "Dog Whisperer", and have spent countless hours researching everything from potty training to natural pet shampoo. We eat take-out, but Maggie only eats organic!

Speaking of dog food, I want to thank our friends Pam and Heather for introducing us to Kriser's Pet Supplies (http://www.kriserspetsupplies.com/). I went there the day we got Maggie and was so overwhelmed I felt like crying. The staff quickly came to my aid and I left that day with a bag full of samples so we could read the labels, and Maggie could decide what she liked. They have wonderful pet products, and a helpful and a dedicated staff. The folks at Petco were also very kind. Because Maggie is a rescue dog they gave me a special coupon book full of savings off the necessities.

I also want to thank everyone for all the gifts for Maggie. We are lucky to have so many friends and family members who love Maggie (and us!).

Some of you are probably wondering why we don't buy our sweet Maggie a real bed to sleep on instead of the towels you see in every photo. Well, we did. We bought her a big, overstuffed bed for her to enjoy. I wanted to curl up and take a nap on that bed. However, Maggie hated the bed, so it was returned. We're still searching for the perfect bed for our couch potato.

Maybe when we find the perfect bed it will help Maggie get a good night of sleep. Maggie doesn't sleep well. At night she sleeps on the floor next to me and every time I wake up to take a peek at her (easy to do now that I've had Lasik) she's awake. When she does finally fall asleep she wakes me up crying out due to bad dreams and I have to get up to comfort her. It breaks my heart.

Today after work I took Maggie for a long walk around the neighborhood. She did great and looked so cute as the snow flurries accumulated on her (especially on her Andy Rooney eyebrows)! She walked right next to me and when passing other dogs Maggie looked straight ahead and kept on walking. She's such a good girl!

Well, that's all for now. Thanks for reading about Maggie!

The last two days have been big for Maggie.

First, the gifts. Maggie gets more mail at our house than we do now!

Maggie got an awesome new collar and leash, along with the pull toy shown here, from her aunts and uncles Christy & Justin and Gretchen & Brian. Right now, like all of her toys, it's an interesting thing to sniff but she's not sure what to do with it yet. But she'll come around one of these days. The collar and leash though get a work out every day, especially today which was one of her more stubborn days relative to the last few.

Speaking of toys, today we tried to play with the ball again by hiding treats under the ball so she had to move it to get the food. Not sure how that's going to play out, but it at least kept me entertained for a bit.

Maggie also got a package from her grandparents which included this stuffed (and squeaky) lamb along with some yummy treats. She was very interested in smelling the lamb, possibly because it was packaged with the treats, but we're hopeful she'll start playing with something soon.

Also, Kat pointed out to me that somehow I missed the very first gifts that Maggie received. I hadn't started the blog yet, so that's my excuse, but I definitely want to back track a bit, because these were all great. Her aunt and uncle Pam & Dan (and Bailey!) got her all sorts of awesome stuff. Bailey was kind enough to share samples of many of her great treats, all seperately packaged and labeled so we can go back to Kriser's to get her favorites. She also got two ceramic food bowls which are really heavy so they won't tip, and they come in a rack that holds them together off of the ground. One of the bowls is pictured in the 2/15 post below.

Right now we still have to bring Maggie's bowls to her since she's afraid to go anywhere else in the house - and she's afraid of the rack for the bowls, which is why they are always on the ground. But they are way better than the lightweight bowls we nearly got her, so these will be with Maggie for a long, long time.

Maggie thanks everyone for the great gifts!

We had to take Maggie to the vet again today. Last night we realized that there was a little bit of blood in spots all over her towel. They were all around where she was laying. We then noticed that she had blood in her urine (one good thing about peeing on snow), so we got her in as soon as we could this morning.

The vet believes she has a urinary tract infection and she's on antibiotics for the next week. Once again, she was a big hit at the vet. Apparently word had gotten out to the staff that Maggie would be there so everyone kept coming out just to sneak a peek at her and see how she was doing. She was very stubborn leaving the vet, which gave everyone a good chuckle that it was the first time they'd seen a dog who refused to leave.

We then cleaned up my back seat and got out of there. Oh yeah, about 2 minutes before I pulled into the vet's parking lot, Maggie tossed up her breakfast. Fortunately, it was just on the towels on the back seat so it wasn't a big deal.

While a the vet, we got the green-light to go ahead and give her a bath. You have no idea how excited we were to clean her.

We ended up washing and rinsing her 4 separate times. The amount of brown water than kept rinsing off of her was unbelievable. She was really good through the entire process and now that it's over we think she's happy with her new, clean look. Since it's now 13 degrees outside, we decided to take our chances with the blow dryer, which she also handled well.

The first photo is just before we started.

This one is after just getting her wet. You can tell she's really enthralled by this process.

This is after her first shampoo and rinse. This is what I call her "name, rank and serial number" pose, which we've gotten to know well.

This is after the total of 4 shampoo\rinse cycles.

And, finally, we have one clean and dried off Maggie.

I think the jury is still out on how happy Maggie is about being clean. While I've been typing since the bath, she's been curled up in a ball on her towel. That's how she was her first couple of days here and more recently she's been sprawled out on the towel.

Hopefully she forgives us soon... but at least if she's going to pout, she'll smell good doing it.

This has been a good weekend for Maggie. It warmed up today to the mid 40's, and rained quite a bit, so a lot of the snow has melted. We went for about an hour long walk today around the neighborhood. She is so amazingly good outside on the leash. She's beyond our wildest expectations for how she might be after training, let alone before. Hopefully this isn't something that changes after she starts to adapt to us and her new life. But for now anyway, she continues to be perfect on the leash. She doesn't get ahead of us, doesn't tug on the leash at all, and stops when we stop.

There is a lot of flooding on the streets today with all of the melt and rain, so while walking we tried to avoid the biggest puddles. At one point had to cross from the middle of the street instead of the intersection because the entire intersection was flooded. There was a little river of water running down the street, maybe just a little over a foot wide, which we had to cross. I stepped over and turned around to watch Maggie. I just assumed she'd walk through it, but then she leapt across it. A small thing, but that's the most energetic thing we've seen her do yet!

Today she played with her Kong and peanut butter some more. This time I slathered some PB not just on the ends but along the middle too. This resulted in the bone flipping away from her as she tried to get it off. As the bone moved away, she chased after it... at least until it flipped out of "her area". We have two towels down by the backdoor where she spends most of her day. In her head, she thinks she can't leave that area, so she just left the toy alone after it flipped off of the towel.

Yesterday we took her to get her nails clipped. They were very nice, but couldn't take much off of her nails. The groomer said that her nails had been allowed to grow so long that the quick was long and she couldn't cut into that. I had no idea what this meant, so did some research. The quick is the area of the nail that contains blood vessels and nerve endings. They say if we keep cutting them back a little every couple of weeks that eventually the quick will recede and we can keep her nails shorter. She was very good on her trip to the groomer. She almost seems to enjoy riding in the car. She walked in and went off with the groomer on her own with no problem. We couldn't ask for a better behaved dog.

Before the groomer, I'd taken her for a walk. I brought her inside, wiped her down, and then took her towels out to put down in the back seat of my car. I came back in, and Maggie was gone. I'd left the gate open from the family room out to the rest of the house. She'd never gone anywhere on her own before so this was a first. I found her upstairs on her bed. At least she seemed comfortable enough to go up there on her own. Just a few days ago she was terrified to go anywhere and we couldn't get her to go up the stairs.

She still won't go down the stairs so we try to keep her on the main level as much as possible to avoid having to carry her back down the stairs as few times a day as possible.

The pictures in this post are from last night. We carried her over by the couch to try to get her used to sitting somewhere else in the house. Eventually she relaxed while Kat was cuddling up with her.

In other news, my boss (Mike) and his wife (Marisa) adopted these two labs from AEAR yesterday! I'd mentioned to Mike on Monday that we got a new dog and her story. Little did I know they were looking and interested in labs or labradoodles. It's good to know that two more dogs found a great home and a loving family! This is their photo from the AEAR site.

Yesterday was a long day for Maggie. We weren't home much so she was stuck in her crate. We were only home for a bit after work to walk her and get her out of her crate for about an hour. A while back (pre-Maggie) we bought tickets to see Chris Rock at the Rosemont Theatre. The show went much later than we thought (we hadn't counted on the hour long hip hop intro to the show along with an intermission) so it was nearly midnight by the time we got home. The poor girl!

She was extra difficult going outside. This is one of Maggie's favorite poses when she doesn't want to move. She spreads her claws like a cat, locks her legs, and just won't move. On the hardwoods, this means her legs just slide out and she stands there frozen. We got this shot late last night trying to go out. This isn't an action shot, she stayed this way for a while...

Maggie got her first postal packages today! Maggie's friends Pendelton & Daphne sent her the yellow ducky (with squeaky eggs and treats) that go in it's posterior and her friend

(and namesake) Maggie sent her the pink rabbit and some treats. Pendelton & Daphne are our
friend's Steve & Dawn's dogs, and Maggie is my aunt & uncle Sue & Tom's dog. We debated the name Maggie because we didn't want to be copycats, but it fit so we just had to explain to the Original Maggie that imitation was the finest form of flattery.

Maggie went on another walk around the block today and was just as well behaved as last time. She seems like a totally different dog when we're out walking than when she's in the house. She's inquisitive and seems full of energy. The only time she got nervous on the walk was when someone was approaching us on the sidewalk. She stopped and wouldn't walk any further until the person got past us. She didn't make any aggressive moves or try to run away, but stood still and looked away until the person passed us.

In the house she still never moves from whatever spot she settles into until we lift her up to move. She still won't go to the food and water either. If it's out of reach, she just doesn't eat or drink. Ultimately we'll have to break her of this habit, but for now we just want her to eat and drink a lot to be healthy. We'll worry about training soon. She also seems generally disinterested in treats. She won't take treats from us out of our hands, but if we put it on the ground in front of her she'll eat it.

One sign of progress is that while she's lying down, she's stretched out on her side and seems comfortable. The first few days she was here, she would lay down and curl up in the tightest ball she could manage.

We bought Maggie a real bed today so we'll see how that goes tonight. We made a bed the last two nights out of towels. She took to it no problem. She stayed on the towels all night through. In fact, she behaved the same way in the morning as she did in her crate - she absolutely refused to budge so we had to pick her up and move her out of the bed.

Tomorrow we go to get these monster nails clipped. We just had our hardwoods refinished and the cat-like stance isn't kind to the floors.

And we can start the countdown... 5 more days until we can give her a bath! We had to wait 10 days since she was spayed. She's one stinky dog at the moment, so we're looking forward to this big day.

Maggie's first toy

We finally figured out a way to get Maggie interested in a toy. Peanut Butter! The squeaky tennis ball wasn't working, so we decided to try Plan B.

She takes after her mom and apparently LOVES peanut butter. She turned up her nose at first and wouldn't try it. I smeared a little on her mouth, and suddenly she was interested. It's a small step, but we're happy to see her starting to use one of her toys!

Here's a little video of her going to town on the PB and some beef jerky inside too.

We went on our first family walk tonight. She was incredibly good again. We encountered a few other dogs along the way, which Maggie didn't enjoy. She just shied away, but clearly didn't want to interact with them at this point. We also encountered one dog that we'd just watched follow us nearly two blocks with no owner in site. I finally had to go back and scare it off as it was making Maggie (and Kat) nervous. Not sure who just lets their dog run around the streets unattended, but hopefully we don't encounter it again.

Here are some pictures of Kat walking Maggie




This is our backyard, and the snow pack.

Ok, our little rock star was golden on her walk. Once we got out the front door, she didn't resist at all. She walked about two steps behind me all the way to the end of the block and back. I think people invest a lot of time and money in training to get their dog to be this good on a walk. Hopefully she stays this well behaved on walks!

She slept a little today. She doesn't seem to be a good sleeper. Most of the time I don't think her eyes ever really close and she seems to be up very frequently throughout the night. She was just sleeping for a little bit in front of me and seemed to be having some nightmares. All of her legs and her facial muscles were twitching and I heard a little bit of a growl in there. So even when she does sleep it doesn't seem entirely restful.

Maggie again wouldn't leave her crate in the morning. She walks in with no problem at night, she seems eager to go in, but she never wants to leave. We've had to physically lift her out of the crate every time.

We think she was always safe (not necessarily comfortable) in a cage, but probably didn't associate leaving the cage with positive experiences. We're thinking about trying a bed at night for her to sleep on and minimize her crate time. We'll go buy a bed this weekend and see how that goes...

She also still won't walk from upstairs down to the main level to go outside. When coming back in the house she'll walk right through the main level and back upstairs with very little difficulty now. Of course she wants to head straight for her crate then (we have to keep the door shut to keep her out of it).

Also when coming back in the house she stops right inside the door. She's pretty tentative at first with any change of scenery. We're hoping to take advantage of this behavior so while she's stopped inside we wipe her paws down before heading into the rest of the house. If we can keep this habit going long term, that would be great.

We also got a few more inches of snow last night, so at least for now it's a little softer and less icy outside. I'm working from home today so I'm thinking about taking her out for a real walk over lunch instead of the back yard. We'll see how that goes...

Day 4

Today's big accomplishments:

Maggie went when I (Steve) walked her. This was a first. Also she went without me having to hide around the corner, so maybe she's getting over her "stage fright" issues.

Maggie walked again on the leash, this time all the way back in the house and up the stairs, back to her crate. It's really nice not to carry her around any more.

She ate and drank plenty today. The vet says she's 49lbs and ideally should be at 55, so she's not that far off. We also heard from the vet that her labs checked out, so all is well.

Another note from the vet - we'd asked if she had a problem with her back legs. She seemed to have a slightly odd walk. Nothing major, just enough to tell something wasn't right. The vet said she's slightly bow-legged, probably from being kept in a concrete floored cage.

We've tried getting her to take interest in some toys, but so far no luck. I doubt she even knows what a toy is, or why a dog would want one. We're trying to start with a ball and go from there. No luck yet, but she at least seems intrigued by the concept of a ball so I think eventually she'll come around.

She's not playful by any means, but she at least doesn't look terrified whenever we approach. Other than first thing in the morning. She's impossible to get out of her crate, but once we do so, she very gradually seems to be warming up.

She's still mostly just lying around by the back door. We still haven't heard a peep from her - I'm sure most dog owners wish their dog never made a noise. So far we haven't gotten a single whine, whimper or bark.

And even though we put towels down, she still keeps lying on the cardboard. I guess compared to where she came from, cardboard probably feels pretty good. We'll be getting her a real bed soon, now that we're getting a better feel for her and where she likes to hang out.

We've also contacted a trainer. The vet advised us to give her another couple of weeks just to adjust to us and her new home before engaging in a formal training program, so we're doing just that.

I almost forgot another important milestone... we finally came up with her name, Maggie today!

Day 3

Today, Monday, was our first workday so we were worried to leave Maggie at home alone.

We got an early evening appointment with the vet, so we at least knew she'd be checked out, we could be sure she didn't have anything seriously wrong, and get her ears checked out.

The vet trip came back with a clean bill of health, other than an ear infection which requires medication for the next week and some vitamins to help regain some moisture in her skin and coat. We were very happy to hear everything was OK.

While there, our Maggie was a rock star. All of the people working at the vet, and the other owners, were enthralled with our quiet, shy Maggie and couldn't get enough of her.

We have to go back in 2 weeks to just do a followup on her spay operation and see how she's doing.

The other big news of the day was this was the first time she walked on her own on the leash instead digging in and forcing us to carry her. Another sign of progress!

To top it off, this was the second day she went outside - no accidents inside. A big, big day!

Day 2

We walked Maggie in the back yard in the morning - again, nothing. The high temperature this day was 1F, with a windchill of -20 to -30. We also have at least 12" of hard packed snow in the yard, with two paths shoveled to the garage and the back gate. Probably not the best circumstances to entice one to go to the bathroom outside.

Maggie again refused any food, water or treats put in front of her. We then put her bowls in the kitchen, which is about 15' away from were she chose to lay all day - directly up against our back door. Our assumption was that we showed the food to her, and she found the water the day before, so if she were hungry or thirsty she would go to it.

Finally around 11am we decided to try another treat. To our surprise, she ate it!

Around 2pm we decided to try bringing the water to her, in case she didn't think it was OK to go get it or was just plain too afraid. Again to our surprise, she drank the water - all of it. We got her a second bowl of water and she drank all of that too. We put the food in front of her and she ate about half of the bowl. An hour or so later she at the remaining half. We also started giving her different treats and she ate all of them.

At least at this point we knew she was eating and drinking so we felt a lot better about her situation and that she was feeling better and at least trusting us to take these things.

She had no problems letting us pet her, but she always was giving us a look like she wasn't quite sure about us. But we're sure about her, so we know she'll come around in time.

We walked her a few more times in the back yard. She finally went #1 in the yard, when out with Kat. We've never been so excited to see a dog pee before.

Whenever we tried to get her to move either around the house or to go outside, she dug in like a cat. Spreading her claws, locking her legs, and refusing to budge. We've done a lot of carrying around our 50lb dog.

At night she walked right in her crate. She didn't seem to really sleep all day or much of the night before so we were hopeful she would sleep tonight. Not so. At 3am she started a new thing of shaking her head (with her snout as the axis, flapping her ears) and scratching vigourously. She also was intently licking and scratching her legs. I Googled this behavior and it either indicated mites, an infection or a food allergy. We were immediately concerned it was the latter, since we'd just fed her about 15 different things that day. We were already planning on calling a vet Monday so we figured we'd ask about it then...

Day 1:Our new dog!

We decided to create a blog detailing our experiences with adopting a rescue dog, so that our friends and family can see her and her progress, and so that others contemplating rescuing a dog might possibly learn more about the experience and help in making that decision.

First, the story of how we found Maggie.

On Saturday, February 9th, 2008 we adopted our new family member, Maggie.

Over the past few months, Kat & I have been thinking about getting a dog and looking for the perfect pet. We looked both at breeders and several animal rescues. We preferred to adopt a pet from a shelter, but we primarily were finding larger dogs or breeds that we weren't interested in (Pit Bulls, German Shepherd's). With Kat's allergies, we wanted to find a pet that might be hypoallergenic, which led us to search for labradoodles, goldendoodles and cockapoos.

At one point over a month ago I stumbled upon 1-800-Save-a-pet.com. Their site lets you search animal shelters nationally for specific breeds and genders. It also lets you create an email alert to be notified when new animals are discovered matching your criteria. I set one up for female labradoodles within 250 miles of Chicago. Labradoodles in rescues are rare, so I didn't expect to get anything. Last week, I received an email about 4 new labradoodles about a 45 minute drive from our home.

The dogs were taken in by AEAR, Animal Education and Rescue, an Illinois not for profit rescue organization. We completed their application process, they checked our references, and we spoke on the phone for nearly 2 hours about the animals, our lifestyle and what we're looking for, and they answered our questions and concerns about the animals previous environment, temperment, etc. and adoption in general. We primarily wanted to find out if the dogs exhibited any signs of aggressiveness towards people, and while there are no guarantees, we wanted some sense of how dogs from their situation will readjust and live some semblance of a normal life.

I can't say enough about the volunteers with AEAR. Becky, Sandy, and Steph were awesome. We spoke with Becky at length Friday evening, and Sandy and Steph were onsite at the Animal Hospital when we visited. All were incredibly helpful, informative and let us work through our decision process with the various dogs with no pressure one way or the other.

We learned that the dogs were from a breeder mill in Wisconsin where about 50 dogs had been rescued. The dogs we were looking at had had several litters, had lived their entire lives in cages, were not housetrained and frankly had no experience interacting (positively) with people. The Fond du Lac Reporter has a story on this particular mill, and the sheriff who doesn't want to be bothered with enforcing the law.

We went to the Animal Hospital where the animals were being kept. They had just been spayed the day before and were then off to foster homes. Of the 4 labradoodles, 2 were very outgoing, but possibly a little too excitable for us. The other two were the most adorable, sad and scared animals we had ever set our eyes upon. They were given the names Jenna and Gem by the rescue volunteers.

Jenna was white in color, and the most scared of the two. She constantly was positioned behind Gem, and frequently shaking in fear. Gem was also terrified, but always stood between us and Jenna. Picking just one of these dogs was heartbreaking, as we wanted to make sure they both went to a good home, but after a lot of consideration we didn't feel we could take on two dogs at once - just getting one seemed like a big leap until we met these two dogs. We also thought - and hoped - that splitting up the dogs would, in the long run, benefit them (especially Jenna) to get them to stand on their own and break their codependence.

We decided on Gem. Living in the city, we thought Gem might have a better chance of acclimating to the variety of people and animals she'll encounter on the street. We also thought Jenna was so adorable, she probably wouldn't last long in the shelter.

Jenna is now in a foster home, and you can see other photos of her here.

The vet and AEAR estimated Gem's age around 2-4 years old, but no one is really certain.

We brought her home that day. She was completely docile in the car ride home, shaking the first 10-15 minutes and then calming down and just laying the back seat. I sat in the back with her while Kat drove. She absolutely refused to walk, and at this point we only had the free leash the vet gave us to hold on to her which was just a nylon rope through a loop. We carried her into the family room and I watched her while Kat went to several pet stores to buy them out of about every treat or toy you can imagine.

(Note: On Day 4 we finally decided on the name Maggie for Gem)

Maggie layed on the floor, scared and motionless for several hours. Finally, she decided to get up and explore the house. Pretty quickly I realized "explore" meant "find a place to pee". Fortunately, we just finished some home construction on the main floor, with some work still ongoing in the basement, so most of the paths in, out and through the house are covered in paper and cardboard. With no leash, and one person at home, it's very difficult to catch a dog (actually, I never did catch her, she finally just became bored and layed back down).

Kat arrived home with a new crate, gates, toys, treats and other necessities.

Maggie refused all food, including treats and cheese, all day. I've never seen a dog turn down cheese. But between her past life, being spayed the day before, and being relocated once again, this wasn't too surprising. She drank a little water, but not much. The entire day was basically her lying on the floor, looking very suspiciously at her new family and home. At this point we weren't sure how much of her lack of responsiveness was recovery from being spayed, adapting to a new home, or her past couple of years of mistreatment.

We tried walking her outside, but she didn't need to do anything since she'd had no food and almost no water. We took her to bed - her crate in our room. She easily went into the crate. Around 2am she was restless and we thought she might need to go out so we walked her again, but it was just a false alarm. Now she was wondering why her insane new family was walking her in the freezing cold in the middle of the night.

Photos: Maggie (aka Gem) protecting her sister, Jenna. These were taken at the Animal Hospital. Tell me these aren't the cutest two dogs you've ever seen.