Meet Maggie

Happy Birthday!

2010-02-09T19:35:00.002-06:00

It's Maggie's 5th birthday (2nd year with us)! Today, well, we got a lot of snow so we didn't take her to "school". After work though we took her over to a nearby park and let her run in the snow. She loooves the snow - at least she loves the snow when it's coming down and she can run in it - she loves it less when it's a foot high and she has no where to poop.

We got her a jumbo "Happy Birthday" cookie from Kriser's. These cookies, from "Lazy Bones" are her new favorite treat, she goes crazy for them.

Looking back at last year's birthday blog entry, I wrote, "Maggie has come a long way and hopefully a year from now we're writing about how much she's changed in '09. We can't wait for the weather to turn and get her back out to the beach and the parks."

She has changed so much, even just this past weekend (more on that later). She's so much more confident when we're outside, her tail is always up and often wagging, and she starts to have fun and play at parks right away instead of taking an hour to think about it. After days at "school" she literally will drag us around the block at a dead sprint she's so jacked up.

This weekend we took her to the park, which was a little muddier than we expected since the sun was out and had melted the snow/ice. She was running around like a crazy girl and then grabbed a stick with her mouth and started running around with it. Then she'd drop it, go back and get it, toss her head around with it, flip it in the air - all like, well, a normal dog. Sometimes when she'd drop it we'd pick it up, toss it back in her general direction and she'd pick it back up and start her sprints again. She has never picked up anything like that or run around with anything in her mouth. She was so excited that she'd just discovered this new ability. Maybe she was too excited. No joke, she could barely walk for 2 days because she was so sore from running her butt off around the park with that stick.

Maybe the best compliment we've gotten and the biggest indicator of how much Maggie has changed is that on two occassions over the past two months, we've been asked "Is she a puppy?". We always used to get, "What's wrong with your dog?" or "What's your dog's story?". It's just so great to see her start to become a normal dog and discover her "dog powers", she really has a playful spirit that makes us laugh every day.

Of course, the last sentence of last year's blog, "We can't wait for the weather to turn and get her back out to the beach and the parks" will always be true. She loves the snow but we all would rather run on the beach!

We can't wait to see how much our girl changes and grows in 2010 - and we can't wait to take her to the beach!

Let it snow...

2010-01-12T21:42:00.004-06:00

When it's not too cold, Maggie likes the snow - especially when it involves running with her mom. Here's a video of her at a nearby park and a few photos.

Florida!

2010-01-07T21:10:00.013-06:00

We're back in the cold and snow now, but we spent Christmas and the New Year in Florida with my parents in The Villages. Since it's on the blog, you know Maggie went with us... which, of course, means we drove down there from Chicago.

The first question we're asked (maybe the second, after "You're DRIVING?!") is "How will Maggie do in the car?". Let's see... Maggie loves being with her mom and dad - the car puts her about 2 feet from both of us; she loves her bed, which fills up the entire backseat; and she just in general loves the car anyway. So 17+ hours each way is really heaven for Maggie. I think if we drove to the southern tip of Chile, Maggie would be OK with that.

I'll break down some of the highlights:

Maggie @ the grandparents
This first picture is from the day we arrived. Maggie was so tired (from what, we're not sure) she fell asleep with her face in her food bowl... snoring. This was the first new thing.

This photo is Maggie and I both taking a nap out on the lanai after another rough Florida day.

Maggie decided to prove us wrong at every turn and exhibit behaviors that she doesn't show at home. We've talked about how Maggie is always in her bed here and doesn't wander the house. Not necessarily true at the grandparents (and like good grandparents, they encouraged her "bad" behavior). We'd leave the house with her in her bed, and find her in "her spot". Her spot over the duration of the trip was a corner by the fireplace\tv and at her back was an army of a dozen teddy bears to stand guard. No matter where else we wanted her to go, all she really wanted to do was sit by the bears.

On one outing we'd left her in her bed in the guest bedroom. We came back to find her on the floor, surrounded by confetti. It turns out, Maggie decided to get into a bag on the floor, take out the plastic box containing two doggie Christmas cookies, and devour them. Granted, these Christmas cookies are one of her favorite treats in the world and we left it on the floor about 8 feet from her bed... but Maggie just doesn't do that! Well, she didn't do that. The treat bag was subsequently relocated.

Maggie liked the lanai, as long as someone else was out there with her. Maggie just doesn't like laying outside without someone else with her - at least that's consistent between Chicago and Florida.

Golf Cart
One thing we both looked forward to was Maggie in the golf cart. Like most things, Maggie didn't like it at first (at one point she tried to jump out at about 20mph, but her mom was having none of that) but by her third trip she decided it was pretty cool.

Sophie

Maggie made a new friend, Sophie. We drove (in the golf cart) over to Ron and Penny's house to meet their new family member. Sophie is a little bundle of energy who would wear out even the Energizer bunny. Maggie doesn't always love smaller dogs, but Sophie was very polite (especially given it was her house) and made Maggie feel right at home. Here's a few shots of the adorable duo.

Dog Park
There was a dog park just about a 5 minute drive from the house. It was a nice, HUGE park, especially by Chicago standards. And had one thing Chicago parks just don't have - grass. Maggie had a blast there, and her grandparents got to see that she really does run and play - after seeing her lay around for a few days I think they were skeptical.

The Drive
As we mentioned, she loved the drive... here are a few photos of the happy girl.

"Are we there yet?"

2009-11-15T20:02:00.003-06:00

We got Maggie a new toy today at Beach Tails. Maggie loves anything with strings and we saw this guy, made out of string. We've named him Brutus.

We told Maggie to keep Brutus out of her bowls though, as Brutus has a history of being a choking hazard when in a Bowl.

She's really kicked his butt tonight, so we think he's a big hit.

Maggie had a great day today up in Michigan, with some major running at the park. She no longer requires an hour of warm up time before she can let loose at the park - but she does still require us to run to get her to run.

Here are some photos of Maggie from Halloween. The first is at home and the other is the official glamour-shot they took at "school".

PAWS 4k Walk II

2009-09-27T19:26:00.004-05:00

This morning we did the PAWS 4k walk for the second year. Maggie did great. She was much less nervous than last year and seemed to actually enjoy it. The walk is along the lakefront. Montrose Beach is her absolute favorite place in the world to go, so we went there after we finished the walk. We've posted some pics from the walk, the beach and a video from today. To explain the video - At the beach, Maggie will run with us and she does this thing where if Kat stops at the end of the run and outstretches her arms, Maggie will run 3-5 crazy fast laps around her. She did it today, but by the time I got the video camera ready she'd done a few laps with us already and I think was pooped on this one. I'll get a better video next time, but for now this is what we've got of her running at the beach...

2009-09-10T21:50:00.009-05:00

Ok, it's been waaaay too long since we've posted and we've had a few people "hounding" us to update the blog (sorry, couldn't resist) so here goes -

Where to start? Maggie has had a great summer, but before we get to that - Maggie was recently highlighted as the "Dog of the Month" at her day care. We think her qualification for this is simply that she's the most adorable dog ever. ;) Here's the story and really great photo from the newsletter.

Maggie really loves day care and has a great time there. The best part is picking her up, you just wouldn't recognize her - tail wagging, jumping, and she won't hesitate to jump over other dogs if it helps her get to us faster. It's really great to see.

She has changed so much since this time last year. She is much less jumpy and now when we run into people on the street or in the parks, one of the first things out of their mouth is no longer "what's her story?". After "What kind of dog is she?" the next most frequent now is "how old is she?" because although she's more "normal" she is pretty subdued so everyone assumes that she's an older dog... until we get her worked up into doing sprints, then no one can believe how fast she is. At the parks she still doesn't play with the other dogs, but gets really fired up if we run with her so we end up running a lot. Of course this works better when there aren't other dogs there trying to tackle us. The best part really is that when we look at her, we see a genuinely happy and much more confident dog - her head is up, her tail is up and she has her big toothy grin.

Maggie went through basic obedience training this summer at Collins Canine and did really well. In the first couple classes Maggie was pretty unsure about it, but once she became more comfortable in that environment she started getting the concept and learning quickly. She now sits and lays down on command pretty much 100% of the time. She got lots of extra practice with those since we didn't realy have to participate in the "leave it" and "no jumping" lessons. One classic Maggie moment happened during a very basic intro to the agility training equipment. There is a tunnel that the dogs are supposed to run through. Maggie of course saw this as the perfect den - she went in, lay down and refused to leave. No amount of coaxing, pushing and pulling would get her out. We eventually lifted one end of the tunnel until she had to slide out the front.

There's more to tell, so we'll post more soon!

2009-03-28T11:00:00.004-05:00

It's been awhile since we've posted. There wasn't really a lot to write about, but the past few weeks we've seen some noteworthy changes in Mags.

Over the past 2 months, we've started working with Maggie on "Come here". She had this down to come over the couch, but at that point "Come here" only meant "go to the couch" - even if we were standing somewhere else in the house, if called, she'd go to the couch.

We started by using Kraft Singles - Maggie's favorite all-time treat - and using the leash in the house to get her to come to us. We then progressed to not using the leash and trying to get her to come. She's finicky about her reward for doing this and will only take cheese. If we try and use anything else she'll just refuse it. She's so spoiled.

We were making some OK progress with this, and then we went on vacation for a week.

Grandma Lela was kind enough to take care of Maggie while we were gone - and sent us daily email updates, assuring us that she was doing OK. It was really hard to leave her, but she was her usual good self and got to go on lots of walks with grandma.

When we went to pick her up, after 8 days, Maggie had the expected reaction - nothing. No tail wag, no spinning around in circles... just "the look". When we got home though she showed some excitement - she wanted to run when we took her on her walk that night, which she normally only does after a day at "school".

Since we've been back, Maggie seems to have gotten a lot better at listening to us. She'll come when called - most of the time now in the house she'll come to us when called, but she's still tentative. Outside the house, such as at the park or the beach (yes, we had 2 days of 50+ degrees, so like all crazy Chicagoans that means shorts and beach weather - no water, just playing on the sand) she's really good at coming to us when called.

Previously, we had the same control over Maggie as a wind-up toy - point her in the right direction and go, but there's no turning back. Now she's started listening to us, so if she's going to the wrong place we can tell her to stop - and she will - and can tell her to go somewhere else and she'll go. That's a huge step that she's started trusting us and listening to us instead of just scurrying along.

The weather has helped too - there's a noticeable change with Maggie once it's over 40 degrees or so, and especially when it's much warmer. Like all of us, she gets really excited to be outside and is generally in a pretty good mood. She's also taken to being more playful at the parks/beach more quickly than last year - last summer we had to give her an hour before she was acclimated and comfortable - now she walks right in tail wagging. We'll give her "school" the credit for that as she's just so much more comfortable with other dogs.

Overall she's doing great, and it's encouraging to see continuous progress with her. Right now we're looking into formalized training classes, as we think teaching her a few more commands will even further increase her confidence and trust, which are two things Maggie can't get enough of.

Birthday (Continued)

2009-02-09T20:24:00.003-06:00

Maggie's "teachers" at "school" were really great and went all out for Mag's birthday. They gave her a birthday girl scarf, some treats and of course - the birthday hat.She clearly had a great day at school today, and was jacked up like usual when we got her home. We took another run at full sprint speed outside. I wish I could get that on video, she's hilarious. Tonight she's working on the tendon her teachers got her - one of her favorite all time treats - next to Kraft singles anyway.

There's more birthday stuff below...

Happy 4th Birthday, Maggie!

2009-02-09T07:25:00.000-06:00

Happy Birthday, Maggie!

Today is Maggie’s 4th birthday!! To celebrate her b-day Steve and I have decided to both blog about the big occasion (Steve's post is below).

I have to start by saying, “I CAN’T BELIEVE A YEAR HAS GONE BY!” I remember the early days so clearly that it seems like just yesterday we brought her home. Maggie was so scared, sore from being spayed, and uncomfortable with an ear infection and UTI. She was too afraid to walk, sleep, eat, or go to the bathroom. Those were the days we called her “Stinky Magee” because she had never been bathed.

A lot has changed in a year. Maggie is healthy and clean! She’s still a very reserved dog, but I believe she’s happy. The process of her coming out of her shell has been slow, but when I look back at where we started it’s nothing short of remarkable.

Steve and I have changed a lot, too. Our whole world revolves around Maggie and her happiness. I’m so in love with her I can’t even put it into words.

Speaking of Steve - - he’s so good with Maggie. He spends so much time with her and has never once griped about walking her in the cold and snow. When we first talked about getting a dog I know he really looked forward to a playful dog who could fetch, etc. - - that’s just not Mags - - but he doesn’t mind. It’s very sweet to see the two of them together - - at least it is to me ;-)

So many people ask about Maggie and how she’s doing. There are some questions that get asked a lot so I thought I’d do a little Q & A . . .

Where does Maggie sleep at night?
Maggie has a bed in our bedroom located on my side of the bed. She’s a good sleeper and pretty quiet in general. Her nightmares, which were a daily occurrence, now seem to be a thing of the past. Sometimes she does some late night grooming, but if I just tell her to go back to sleep she will.

Maggie is not a morning dog. She is full of dirty looks when the alarm clock goes off and on the weekends we are usually up before her.

Do you still use the crate?
No, the crate has been packed up and stored away. Before we put it away for good we tried setting it up next to her bed and letting her pick what she wanted. She picked the bed.

What’s with the brown towels I see in every photo?
The day we got Maggie we had nothing and I picked those up at Target because I knew we needed to give her a bath. Since we had nothing those became makeshift beds and blankets and we quickly learned that they were a source of comfort for her - - like a safe spot. I’ve stuck with them because they are easy to clean - - just shake them out and put them in the washing machine.

Does she just walk around your house?
Sadly, no. When called she’ll go “upstairs” or to the “basement”, but she never just gets up and strolls around the house. Her new bed that you’ve probably seen in photos hasn’t helped . . . she loves that couch / bed!

Is she good?
She’s very, very good. She has no behaviors that we need to discipline (which is good because the few times we’ve had to tell her “No” she’s taken it very hard - - she’s very sensitive). All of her good manners are self taught. Maggie has made our life very easy - - she has spoiled us.

Does she bark?
No, she does not bark. She did bark once in her sleep and it scared us all.

How many puppies did she have?
There’s no way to tell how many litters she has had. I would love to meet some of her offspring - - if they got her stubborn streak I bet their owners have their hands full.

Is Maggie stubborn?
Yes. Mags is on her own agenda - - she’s not going to do something she does not want to do (but since she is so good this is rarely an issue).

Have you tried training her by rewarding positive behavior with treats?
Maggie is not food motivated. We tried to train her to overcome her fear of doorways with treats. Even when she’d eventually come in she’d turn her head away and refuse the treat. Maggie takes treats when she wants to take treats (see the question above).

What’s her favorite treat?
Her very favorite treat is Kraft Singles - - which is funny because we’ve spent a lot of time and money to research and purchase the very best dog treats available.

Does she still go to daycare?
Yes, Maggie goes to school two days a week. She runs around and plays and when she sees us in the window at pick-up time she jumps on the fence in excitement. School makes her happy, so it makes us happy.

Does Maggie like going to your place in Michigan?
Yes, Mags loves Michigan. She loves to ride in the car and the general quietness of Harbor Country suits her personality. Plus, she gets lots of walks and trips to the dog park while we’re there.

Do you realize that Maggie is a dog and not a child?
Ha, ha. Yes, we know.

What is Maggie getting for her birthday?
In celebration of Maggie’s birthday we’ve made a donation to the organization that made this all possible - - Animal Education and Rescue (aear.org).

Hey Shorty, It's Your Birthday!

2009-02-09T07:14:00.000-06:00

Today is Maggie's "birthday"! Unbelievably, it's been one year since we adopted Maggie. We were reminiscing today about how far she has come - the days of her shaking, being carried everywhere, not going to the bathroom and not eating seem so long ago. We actually can't remember what it was like to not have Maggie in our lives.

She is such a different dog now, especially for those who knew her from the beginning. Besides just being in a safe place, being clean and being fed, her going to "school" is probably the biggest contributor to her new found confidence. We wonder how far she would have come without that - and we owe Carla, Justin (and George, of course) for cluing us in to daycare. She has such a blast every day that she's there and is so jacked up when we pick her up, we just never thought we'd see her so happy.

Maggie actually runs with me when we get home from school, just around the block, but it's a riot. She's definitely the "awkward kid" when it comes to running (well, many things, really). She has an odd gait where her backside kind of swings out, which basically makes her body look like she's at an angle to the direction she's running. She loves it though and is just the embodiment of pure fun when she's like that. We have yet to get her to run on the leash other than right after school, but who knows when or if that may change someday.

Maggie is still stopping traffic and we have random people ask us about her all of the time. A couple of days ago someone up the street, whom I've never met before, asked what breed she was and said that she and her husband have seen us walking her and love her "prance". Today a woman rolled down her window outside Starbucks to ask about her and made her husband, who was less than interested, observe how cute she is.

For all of her improvement, I don't want to give the impression that she's now a "normal" dog and all is fine. We write a lot about the positives, but I also feel like we are in some way letting abusers like JC Heiberg off of the hook by making it sound like everything is good. I don't know that she'll ever be "normal" and she certainly would be different if she had not been so mistreated. Maggie is a very smart dog, and deep down in there you can tell there's a playful dog, but in many ways she's broken. It's just sad to think that people are capable of such mistreatment of animals and that she may never fully enjoy life as much as she may have done otherwise because of them.

Just today we were petting her by the couch and at one point my hand brushed my track pants (we'd gone to the gym) which made a funny noise - Maggie immediately jumped and cringed. Any somewhat unexpected movements around her make her flinch. Sometimes on a walk I'll just scratch my head or nose and if she happens to look up at that moment when my arm is raised she jumps back and pulls away.

She still doesn't walk around the house other than to go from one bed to the next. She lacks the social skills she should have around other dogs, so for the most part at parks they ignore her because they don't understand her. It takes her a really long time to feel safe in a different environment - often when we go the park we have to stay for at least an hour before she'll move more than 10 feet from either of us.

I just have to reiterate to anyone out there who is thinking about getting a dog to go to a rescue or at least a reputable breeder - the pet stores just support and perpetuate puppy mills that in turn create many more Maggie's out there who need help.

Oh, by the way, on the National Geographic Channel there's a relatively new show called "Dog Town" - it's a large rescue organization out in Utah. It's a great show and they rescue and work with many dogs like Mags every day, so check it out.

We (and Maggie) would like to thank her grandma and grandpa for her birthday gift - a leash and collar that lights up at night. This will come in handy up in Michigan for sure where there are no street lights and we often walk in the dark.

Maggie has come a long way and hopefully a year from now we're writing about how much she's changed in '09. We can't wait for the weather to turn and get her back out to the beach and the parks. Hands down, adopting Maggie is the best thing we've ever done. To be able to help her and see her have a great life after such a rough start is really very rewarding and we can't imagine life without her. We just hope she feels safe, happy and knows how much we love her. It's been a great year, and we hope for many, many more with Maggie.

-Steve

Maggie's First Christmas

2009-01-11T15:10:00.000-06:00

We have a lot to blog about, so we'll cover Christmas Day here and other stuff in the next post.

Little Mag's had a pretty good first Christmas. Santa and her grandparents made sure she was completely spoiled.

Here's Maggie looking at her loot, with Mr. Stinky looking on (Stinky has no idea that this isn't going to be a good day for him...)

Her grandma & grandpa sent her a new collar and some yummy treats from Florida. Her grandma Lela got her some Bully Sticks and a new ornament.

Here's Maggie with her gifts from Santa - a new Kong, a new winter collar/leash, and a new toy - now dubbed Lambchop. We'll get to Lambchop in the next post.

Later, after opening gifts, we hosted Christmas day. We had about 25 guests over, which is about double the number Maggie has ever seen in our house. She handled it all well - staying put in her little den in the corner.

She had some cuddly company in Finnegan - the new puppy Kat's cousins Tim & Sue picked up that morning. Finnegan was adorable and possibly slept more than Maggie did that day - and he took care of his business outside all day without a single accident. For the most part they didn't really interact much with each other - besides trying to eat each other's food. Finnegan is probably looking for livelier company and Mags was more or less indifferent which is kind of her default mood.

Kat & I exchanged ornaments - and Maggie just happened to get each of us an ornament too. You'll notice there was somewhat of a theme in this year's gifts.

2009-01-11T15:07:00.003-06:00

So when Kat brought home a new stuffed animal as one of Maggie's Christmas gifts, I'll admit that I was skeptical. We all know Maggie doesn't play with toys. Sure she's chewed on Stinky a couple of times but her interest quickly waned and for the most part he is ignored. So why get another toy to just sit around, right?

Well, it turns out, for whatever reason, Maggie loves Lambchop. Stinky is now a second class citizen (he's out of sight in her toy box now). Maybe it's because Stinky showed up on her first day and she didn't realize he was hers (maybe Stinky was here first and she was his?). Maybe he just doesn't taste as good, who knows.

Maggie took to Lambchop right away, chewing on her, tearing up the strings tied to her, and curling up with her. This lead to a new discovery...

While playing around with Lambchop to try to entice Maggie to play, she starting grabbing the strings or an arm or an ear and pulling on Lambchop while we held on to other parts of her. Maggie had never done this before.

After a while of this we remembered that she's had a tug toy in her toy box since the day we got her, but she had never shown any interest in it. It took some prodding, but Maggie eventually figured it out and started playing with us - nearly 11 months after we found her. She's pretty timid about it, especially to start, but at times she can pull pretty hard. We make sure she always wins which seems to build up her confidence as the game goes on. Of course, this is all in bed and she doesn't bother to even sit up to play. But it's another huge breakthrough for her.

She'll eventually work herself up after a few minutes where she's "laughing" and seems to be having fun trying to grab the toy as we spin it around her head. So we spend a few minutes every day playing - she sometimes loses interest pretty quickly. She's getting better at it and she's played probably nearly a dozen times now. Today she even grabbed the end of it as soon as I brought it out without requiring the usual five minutes of ramp up time it usually takes her to start.

So, Stinky is relegated to the toy box for a while now. We're hoping in a couple of months we can bring him out and he'll be a new and fascinating toy for her, but we'll see.

We got a bunch of snow on Friday and Saturay, so Maggie's back to wondering where she can go to the bathroom. We easily have a foot of snow out there now, with another 1-2" inches on the way Monday and another "significant snow event" Wednesday... then the HIGH is supposed to be like -2 on Thursday, so it's not going anywhere anytime soon. Here are a few shots of Mags and I from Friday and Saturday. Sometimes Maggie doesn't realize she can shake and get the snow off of her, so we couldn't resist getting this shot of the abominable snow pup before toweling her off Friday.

2008-12-08T21:20:00.013-06:00

Christmas cards are in the mail! If you've been reading the blog, you probably have guessed what might be featured on our card. If you're just checking out the blog for the first time, you're now beginning to realize that we're insane - or at least insane about our dog. We'll leave that up to you to decide, just don't tell us the verdict.

After Thanksgiving, we started trying to get a great shot of Maggie with her Santa hat on. We started on her bed, and then once the tree was up and decorated we changed the shooting location. Mags wasn't really the biggest fan of this process, but relatively speaking she handled it pretty well.

We had plenty of cheese on hand for bribes, and kept it to short sessions. It got a lot easier once we thought to use the rapid fire feature of the camera so that we could hold down the button and just shoot away, so 4 or 5 sessions and 200+ pictures later, we got the card. The hardest part was picking out a favorite.

Anyway, thanks for indulging us and checking out the site. We're now on our 10th month with Maggie and she's changed so much and doing great.

Maggie, Kat & I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

2008-11-28T13:48:00.004-06:00

We just got Maggie groomed this past Tuesday, so she's all set for the holidays. She looks so much like a puppy after she's been cut. It's really nice this week too, because she doesn't usually smell very great after coming home from day care, so we have the better part of a week before she'll pick that odor up again.

This picture of her cuddling Mr. Stinky is from today. She's started showing more interest in him lately and often curls up with him or uses him as a pillow.

Mags enjoyed her first Thanksgiving at Grandma Lela's. She seems to like it there because she doesn't have a "spot" and moves around more (relatively speaking, for Maggie). Our little non-food motivated girl though is starting to come out of her shell. At one point we were all in the kitchen with Maggie still in the family room. Kat took a peek out there and Maggie was up at the coffee table sniffing the dip. Another minute, and Maggie would have had her first taste of pumpkin dip and ginger snap cookies.

We took a few shots of Maggie eating. We still put her food near her for meal times, just a few steps away from her bed. She's also started doing this thing where she stands on her bed and licks her bowl clean after we move them back by her bed. And she licks her chops constantly after eating. Not that either of these are unusual, just everything she does amuses us...

2008-11-18T21:13:00.004-06:00

It's been a couple of weeks, which is an eternity in Maggie-world.

First, the bed. She LOVES the new bed. She laid on it right away, but it took a couple of days for her to really figure it out and get comfy. She now zonks out on that bed like you wouldn't believe. We thought she was adorable while sleeping on her old pad. That was nothing compared to her on the new bed. Even on the bed every time we think that's as cute as it can get, she finds another pose to entertain us.

She's figured out that she can rest her head up on the bolster around the sides and back. When she's not doing that she likes hanging her head completely off of the front. Other times she just sprawls out and takes up the entire bed. I'm sure she never dreamed of having it so good.

We'd gotten her used to coming over to the couch and sitting by us. On her pad she always gave us "the look" that we interpreted as her wanting to come over here, but waiting to be called... so we'd call and she'd run over here; often before we even got more than one syllable out of our mouths.

With the bed, that's changed. Suddenly laying on the area rug by the couch is slumming it. If we call her like 10 times and really insist she'll come over here, while making sure we know that she doesn't really want to be here. And she can't get back to her bed fast enough when we tell her to go.

Maggie continues to go to doggie daycare or "school" as we call it. In general she's going twice a week now. It's ridiculous how much she loves school and has changed - at least while there. They have a web cam so I can occasionally check in on her. The first few weeks, I generally would only see the back of Maggie's head, sitting in the corner in front of the web cam. Now, she's prancing around, sniffing all the dogs, her tail way up high and wagging. She's so happy.

The people working there are awesome, totally love Maggie and have noticed a huge change in her as well. They say she plays with the dogs outside now (I can't see that on the web cam). One of the days that she goes, her pal George is there. George is very nice to Maggie and I think showed her the ropes. Often when I check-in on the web cam George is lying down next to Mags. On one occasion I'd see George go play with some other dogs, check back in and sniff Mags, go play some more and then come lay down next to her.

One of the best parts for us is that Maggie now will get excited when she sees us. When we go to pick her up, she can see us in the window and will start running around and jumping up on the gate. That's right - Maggie, jumping. We about died the first time we saw it. She even jumped over some other dogs to make sure everyone knew it was her turn to leave and that her mom and dad were there to pick her up.

She's a total spaz when we walk out of there and take her for a quick walk before getting in the car. Suddenly she's Speed Racer and can't walk fast enough. She also appears drunk as she can't walk anywhere close to a straight line. We walk her now before getting in the car because, to our knowledge, she has yet to "get busy" while at school. At first we didn't do this, but we got a few blocks away and Maggie started whining. Yep - whining. That's the one and only time she's ever done that. So we immediately pulled over, she went, and now that's part of the standard operating procedure.

I think the other change around here is that we're bringing Maggie in on the leash now from her walks. Normally we'd take her off leash in the yard, she'd run up on the deck, and then we'd tell her to "go to her spot". The problem with that was that Maggie was a genius about going to her spot very quickly when it was first thing in the morning (breakfast was about to be served) or her after-work walk (dinner was about to be served). The other times (leaving for work and the last walk of the night before bed) Maggie would act like she had no clue what her spot was and frankly often looked like she didn't know who we were or wasn't convinced that this was her house (seriously, at bedtime she'd always sniff the door frame and look all around like it was her first time here).

So, we've started keeping her on the leash and walking her in the house. That's easier said than done, but after about a week and a half of that, it seems to be paying dividends. Last night was the first night that she walked in at bedtime on the leash willingly. Previous nights I had to eventually pull her in, but we think (hope) she's getting it.

Speaking of nighttime walks, it's about time for hers tonight - although from the looks of it she's dreaming (her little paws are going) in her bed.

Sleep tight . . .

2008-11-04T20:21:00.004-06:00

Maggie's first weeks with us included the purchase of lots of items . . . some of which were never used, briefly used, or rarely used. Count a big, fluffy bed among the items that were briefly used.

When we first adopted Maggie she never moved unless we picked her up and carried her . . . except the seventh night she was with us. That day I had purchased a big, comfy, fluffy pillow bed for Maggie. When it was time for bed we laid her on her new bed and documented the moment with a photo - - you can see from the picture that she looks thrilled ;-) At 1 a.m. the dog that never moved got up and walked across the room to lay down in front of her crate.

That story isn't a big deal for a normal dog, but Maggie was (and in some ways still is) a shell of a dog. It took amazing courage for her to get up and walk across the room - - and was proof to us that she really, really didn't like that bed.

I returned that bed the next day, but her response to it left us in a pickle. We knew we needed to make Maggie comfortable, but how? We decided to start with a simple pad and work our way up (thus, the famous brown crate mats layered with her towels in every photo to date). In the beginning Maggie seemed to really love the crate pads, but over time they lost their allure - - she has become a dog used to living the good life and we could tell she was ready for something more.

Thanks to a doggie catalog that arrived in our mailbox, Steve found a couch / bed that looked perfect for Maggie. Our purchase arrived today and it's now the newest piece of "furniture" in our family room. We put a brown towel on it (that's the Maggie universal sign for "lay here") and she jumped right on. She's still adjusting, but we think she's happy with her new couch - - we just want her to be happy!!

2008-10-14T19:45:00.003-05:00

We got some good news from the vet! Last Thursday we took Maggie to the cardiologist for the ultrasound of her heart to see if it was indeed enlarged and if it posed any health risks for her. The doctor said that her heart is slightly enlarged for her size (they calculate a ratio between the heart size and spine length to come up with a number to compare to a "normal" range). He confirmed though that there is no heart murmur, that she has a normal heart rate, and the ultrasound showed perfectly normal heart function. So, our little Mags' heart is totally fine!

Maggie seems to be enjoying her visits to the Mutt Hutt (aka "school"). It's amazing some of the changes we've seen in her since she started. Maggie is really wound up when we pick her up at the end of the day. When we picked her up yesterday she actually jumped up on her hind legs a couple of times when she saw us waiting outside for her. She's exhibiting more normal dog-like behaviors, such as curiosity of her surroundings, and she really perks up and wags her tail a little when she sees other dogs or people approaching.

We're just taking her once a week, but it seems to be a really good experience for her to socialize and learn from other dogs. They have a webcam so we can periodically check in on her. In just 5 visits, she has gone from sitting in the corner watching the other dogs to walking around, sniffing and interacting with the other dogs. She's not exactly running around and playing, but it's definitely an improvement.

We went on the Chicago PAWS fund-raiser walk a couple of weeks ago at Montrose beach. There were thousands of people and dogs. A month before that, I don't think Maggie would have been able to handle it, but after a nervous start she was pretty chill with it. And it was cool how many other people - with their own dogs in hand - stopped us to ask us about Maggie and comment on how cute she is.

Maggie also has become a pro at coming over to the couch to visit with us and seems to enjoy sprawling out in her new den next to mom and dad (the first picture above).

Thank you, Grandma Lela!

2008-10-06T19:33:00.004-05:00

This past weekend Steve and I went to KC to visit our good friends Todd & Marcy (and their wonderful children Jake & Alyssa). They were wonderful hosts and we had a great time. MANY THANKS to Grandma Lela who took great care of Miss Maggie while we were away.

Since Maggie's still learning how to be a normal dog we had some anxiety about leaving her. Would she refuse to go to the bathroom? Would she go on a hunger strike? Maggie had a few day visits with her Grandma to get used to her home, but we were still nervous. To help the visit go smoothly we created a "survival guide" for Grandma Lela to refer to during the weekend. I've pasted it in below so you can get a glimps of a day-in-the-life-of-Maggie (and us).

So no on has to ask . . . Yes, we missed Maggie terribly and phoned daily to check on her. As soon as our plane landed we raced from the airpot to pick her up. She didn't stand up and wag her tail when she saw us, but she seemed happy to see us in her own way.

Maggie: The Caretakers Survival Guide

SCHEDULE
Maggie’s M-F Schedule
A.M.: Wake-up; potty; eat breakfast; potty before we leave for work*
Daytime: At home alone with her treat-filled Kongs
5 P.M.- ish: Potty; dinner
Bedtime: Potty
*sometimes she doesn’t have to go again so soon. If she doesn’t go, she doesn’t go. If you can sneak home at lunch and give her another try great, but if not she’ll be fine.

Maggie’s Weekend Schedule
A.M.: Wake-up; potty; eat breakfast
12 P.M. - ish: Potty
5 P.M. - ish Potty; dinner
Bedtime: Potty

FOOD
- Maggie gets a leveled ¾ cup of dry food for breakfast and dinner (a total of 1 ½ cups per day). Place her food right in front of her. To help with trust we never make Maggie work for her food.
- While she’s never choked, we are always in the room with her when she eats (but don’t watch her - - she’ll give you a look letting you know she doesn’t like that!).

Water
- Maggie gets her water bowl 24/7 (even at bedtime). She likes it on the front corner of her bed (so it’s nearby, but not in her way).

Medicine
- Maggie gets one vitamin daily in her dinner. Just simply drop the vitamin on top of her food (no need to try to hide the pill). If you forget to add the pill, you can offer it to her from the palm of you hand. If you forget all together simply skip that day.

Treats
- Maggie gets her Kong treats once daily. On Saturday night she should get an extra special treat (after dinner, around 7 p.m.)
- The treats in the Kong are small enough for her to have while she’s alone and do not present a choking hazard. All other treats have to be supervised.

POTTY
- The potty phrase is “get busy.” Say it kindly, but firmly. Don’t baby her, and don’t let her mess around. Potty time is all business.
- She usually does #2 twice a day, but that’s just an average.
- If her stool is very soft or runny please cut out all treats and let us know. If this happens Mags will be very grateful if you can increase her turnouts.
- She can hold “it” for a very long period of time. Just be consistent with her turnouts. When she’s scared or nervous she shuts down, but she’ll go eventually.

LEASH
- When you put Maggie on the leash turn your back to her and say, “let’s go” kindly, but firmly. Even if she doesn’t move right away keep your back turned and keep saying “let’s go” - - it may take a minute, but she will follow.
- When your back is turned you can jiggle the leash to encourage her.
- Tug on the leash only as a last resort - - she gets scared and it sets her back.

GROOMING
- Maggie develops lots of eye boogers. If you wipe them away once a day that’s all she needs to prevent build-up. She really doesn’t like to have them wiped away, and will try to turn her head away.
- Maggie’s paws get wiped each time she comes in so she doesn’t track dirt all over the house. If you want to wipe her paws feel free to do so - - she is accustomed to this tradition.

IN CASE OF AN EMERGENCY
Cell #'s . . .
Vet . . .
Emergency Vet . . .

Angels Among Us

2008-09-23T17:35:00.002-05:00

Maggie's blog recently received two anonymous comments under our very first entry.

One comment came from someone who was there the night Maggie and the other dogs were seized. The other comment is from someone who is familiar with the legal proceedings against the operator of Maggie's puppy mill, J.C. Heiberg. Apparently she is doing some well deserved jail time! I'm thinking this jail time is a result of the separate misdomeaner guilty verdict for not providing proper shelter for an animal, but I do not know for sure. To read about her trial check out our entry on 8/24/08.

This is a great reminder for Steve and me that there are many, many people who helped and loved Maggie before we ever knew she existed. They literally saved her life. I can't help but wonder how these anonymous posters were and/or are specifically involved with this case. Are they volunteers? Lawyers? Concerned citizens? I would bet money that they have big hearts and love animals.

The blog has many advantages. Our friendship with Justin, Carla, and George is just one example. Another advantage is that we have the opportunity to publicly say THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to every person who helped save Maggie and the other dogs. Ever since we adopted Maggie we've made a point to educate ourselves about puppy mills, and I know the work you're doing is not easy.

Since the posts are under our very first entry I have pasted them in below . . . because they are very worth reading.

- - - - - - - - -

Dear Maggie: I am glad to hear that you found such a wonderful home. I know you deserve to have such wonderful doggy "parents". You had a "ruff" start in life, but your future looks brighter.

I just wanted you to know that JC is being held in Jail for 60 days for her crime. I also can assure you that her operation has been shut down & will not be re-established. She is being monitored very closely by the Sheriff's Department and her Probation Agent.

Have a happy life, and be a good doggy!

- - - - - - - - -

SteveKat: Thank you for posting this website. I love to hear that these dogs are finding such wonderful homes. I was there the night they were seized by the Kenosha County Sheriff's Dept. I know many dogs did not get rescued because Fondulac failed to do their jobs. I am just glad that this puppy mill was shut down and that Kenosha County took extreme steps to keep her shut down. Please keep posting information on Maggie, because I love my dog as much as you do & happy to hear this one had a happy ending...or should I say a new beginning in life.

1st Day of School

2008-09-22T18:29:00.003-05:00

Today was Maggie's first day of "school" (a.k.a. doggy day care). She didn't play today, but was brave enough to spend all day in the big room with the active dogs.

Her mom wasn't so brave. I was a crying mess. Her little face in the window watching me leave broke my heart. The staff kept telling me to hold it together and be confident for her . . . I tried. They had to ask me to hand over her leash and then said, "It's time for you to go now." I felt so silly. I apologized when we picked her up tonight, but they assured me I wasn't the first.

Steve checked on Maggie via the daycare webcam, and I called during nap time (12-2p.m.) to get an update. Our friend Carla even got a progress report when she called to check on George.

Speaking of George, he was so sweet with Miss Maggie today. The staff said as soon as she arrived Maggie went to be with him, and when we picked her up George stopped playing to say good-bye. They're so cute!

The plan is for Maggie to go to day care every Monday, but while she's adjusting to that environment we may add in a second day for a few weeks.

Yesterday Maggie spent the day at her Grandma Lela's while Steve and I watched the Bears lose to the Bucs in OT. She did great with her treats and dinner, but wouldn't go to the bathroom until we had returned from the game.

We're hoping all these new experiences help expand her world and teach her that she is safe.

Re: teaching, Maggie is learning "stop". After her run-away accident this summer we started teaching her to "stop" each time we cross the street. Well, it has translated in the house, too. Sometimes Maggie gets confused between "upstairs" and the "basement" and in the past there was no stopping her once she was on her way. Now, if we say "stop" she will and we're able to re-direct her. No more frantic scrambling that scratches up the floors. It's almost as if her brain is settling down and allowing her to hear us.

Maggie also made big progress tonight - - we called for her to come sit by us and she walked over on her own! We didn't have to pick her up or use the leash!! It's another sign that she's finally settling in to her new home. It's hard to believe that Maggie's been with us for over 7 months now.

Now I just hope that when we pick Maggie up from day care next time that she comes running up to us with her tail wagging . . . or at least that it happens some day.

Get Well Gift & New Fall Fashions

2008-09-10T20:52:00.009-05:00

Maggie's recup-eration just got easier thanks to her Aunt Aimee. Today a package from Beantown landed on our doorstep with some yummy treats inside. You can see from the photo that they immediately peaked Maggie's interest, and early tastings have been very positive. Thank you, Auntie Aimee!!

Fall has arrived and Maggie has updated her look. She started this weekend with her new Chicago Bears collar and leash, and she has progressed to parting her hair down the middle. We don't know how she does this - and the photo doesn't really do it justice - but we promise that it looks like she's learned to part her hair. We've wondered what she does up in the bathroom all day, and now we know. As soon as she's well she's off to the groomer so we hope she's not overly attached to her new style.

Maggie, Bears, and Wookies

2008-09-06T17:05:00.005-05:00

First, Maggie seems to be feeling better and we haven't heard her cough today. Thursday night and yesterday morning she was pretty despondent and sounded bad with her cough. So it seems the antibiotics are doing their job. Also her heart worm test came back negative, so that's good news.

Since football season has officially started, Maggie has now donned her Bears collar and leash. Her prediction for the season is 9-7, but that they'll still win the division. She also has a particular dislike for Green Bay, being in the northern wasteland of Wisconsin and all... When asked how she thought Aaron Rodgers would do, she just gave a quizzical look, like "Who is Aaron Rodgers?" - exactly.

Since she hasn't been groomed in a while (and now it's further postponed while she finishes up her quarantine period) we've had probably 4 or 5 people comment that she looks like Chewbacca, or more generally, a Wookie. So I couldn't resist... I think I see the resemblance.

Maggie is sick...

2008-09-04T17:47:00.005-05:00

I left out some details from the end of our vacation until we had a chance to go to the vet and get some facts instead of just worrying about what may be wrong with Maggie. Here is some background and what we know now:

Late Sunday night, just before bed, Maggie coughed a few times. I've never heard her cough before, but we were sitting outside for a while and we figured she probably just got a little something like hair or grass stuck in her throat. There was also someone smoking nearby, so I thought maybe that bothered her.

Just after we got on the boat Monday afternoon she coughed a few times and sounded like she might vomit. We still weren't sure it was anything. I'd just lifted her up, so we thought I might have applied pressure to her throat. Plus when she sounded like she might vomit we were at sea so we thought maybe the motion was bothering her.

By Tuesday she'd coughed a few more times, never very long, but it had happened enough that we thought we'd better schedule an appointment for the vet. The canine flu has been going around, and if untreated and severe can be fatal, so we din't want to take any chances. The soonest they could get us in was this afternoon.

Around the time we made that appointment on Tuesday, Kat wrote Carla to let them know we'd better put off any playdates with George until we figured out what was wrong with her. That ended up unfolding a series of other events.

It turns out poor George started coughing on Saturday, and by Sunday they were at the emergency vet. Because of the flu problems, their vet did an x-ray. That x-ray showed possible fluid in the lungs and an enlarged heart. They started George on antibiotics and went back on Tuesday to get new x-rays which showed some improvement in the lungs, but again the enlarged heart. Taken by itself, they weren't sure if it was all related, or if the heart was a separate issue from the lungs/cough.

We heard all of this from Carla on Wednesday. We were worried about the cough and now possible heart problems was on our list of worries. The good news was that since they both were coughing it seemed likely that the cough was just something going around and not related to the heart. We're really glad that they let us know all of this so we were armed with this information for our appointment today. Since they came from the same environment, and possibly are genetically related, the heart was a concern for us - but I think really we thought we were just being paranoid and overly cautious.

In our appointment, they ran a test for heartworms, which we'll hear back about tomorrow. They weren't going to do an x-ray, but we relayed what we knew about George and they said they'd take 1 x-ray picture just to doublecheck and to put our minds at ease.

It turns out that they saw 'spots' or 'spiderwebs' in the x-rays of her lungs. I don't know if this is similar to the fluid described from George's x-rays. And, unfortunately, they also see abnormal enlargement in Maggie's heart too. They ended up doing another x-ray after seeing the enlargement in the first one to get a different angle on it, and got 2 other vets opinions on it to confirm it was enlarged. If there's any good news in this, it's that in both George and Maggie's cases, the vets didn't hear a heart murmur which would likely indicate the problem was in an advanced stage.

Maggie now is on two antibiotics - same as George. They're advising us to come back in 2 weeks to see if the cough is gone and get another x-ray to check her lungs. They don't think the cough is related to the heart problem and is likely a bacterial infection. The vet did point out that the enlargement was there, and noticeable, but was not major (as far as enlarged hearts go, I suppose). They advised us that after we clear up the lungs we can decide what to do about the heart. A next step would likely entail doing an EKG and ultrasound with a cardiologist to get an opinion on whether it requires treatment or is mild enough that it won't cause her long-term problems (Maggie is going to have to get a job now to pay for her medical bills).

We assume the cough for George and Maggie will likely clear up soon and it may have been a blessing in disguise to uncover the potential heart problems. Right now we're very happy that Carla and Justin found us, otherwise we wouldn't know about this at all, and it's going to be helpful to exchange notes on this as we all go forward.

We always knew Maggie had a big heart, but this wasn't exactly what we had in mind. Of course, we're hopeful and optimistic that it will all turn out OK for both Maggie and George. For now all we can do is wait and see.

2008-09-01T22:37:00.006-05:00

Our neighbors Phil & Ann invited us out on their boat today to go tubing, and were nice enough to invite Maggie as well. We figured she'd done so well all week, and in the spirit of continuing to introduce her to new adventures - why not?

They have a dog (he's still a pup), Marley, so they'd each have company and they've met each other in the hallways before. She seemed to like it. If we didn't know better we'd think she on boats all the time. She acted much like she was in the car, and having cool, calm and collect Marley around didn't hurt. Also, as you'll see the pictures, Maggie took a turn in Marley's life vest for a little swim...

So here are the pics, plus some shots from when we were at Grand Mere State Park earlier in the week.

Maggie & Marley - two happy boaters

"You're kidding, right?"

That's not an otter

Watch out Phelps - it could be Maggie in 2012

Maggie drying off with her mom

Kat & Maggie saying "Goodbye" to a great vacation...

These shots are from Thursday when we went to Grand Mere State Park:

New Buffalo City Dog Park

2008-08-30T16:18:00.001-05:00

We just found out yesterday that the New Buffalo dog park is now open. Its only about 1.5 miles out from the center of town at 1420 E. Washington St. It's smaller than the Michigan City park, but plenty big enough. Its less than a 5 minute drive from our place, which is better than the 15-plus minutes down to Michigan City. Its very quiet and a nice grassy area for the dogs to run.

We took Maggie there last night and there were 4 friends there for her to play with. She sniffed around a lot and was comfortable enough to lay down, but she didn't do any running around. We'll try again tonight.

We went to the Michigan City park Thursday night where she did run around and play for a little while with two puppies. It was good for her to see how the puppies initiated play and since they were pups they were much more insistent that she play. The grown dogs often will show they want to play but if Maggie doesn't respond they leave her alone and go find another dog.

The frequent exposure to other dogs this past week really has semed to help her and each day builds off of the previous.

We also went to Bridges to eat outside with Mags. The food was so-so but it was a great spot to take her out with us and pretty quiet.

Also on Thurs, Maggie jumped out of the car on her own. That was a first and she repeated it yesterday, so we're hopeful that she finally has this down.

We've seen some great progress with her recently. The are sometimes small things, but they are signs that she's more trusting of us and more comfortable with new situations.

In the house she's figured out that if we're petting her that she can flop over on her side to get a belly rub. Previously we had to nudge her over to show her.

In a few new situations, such as the new park, the State Park beach, or just stopping to talk to neighbors in New Buffalo, she'll pretty quickly be comfortable enough to lie down and just chill. The old Maggie would have stood nervously with her nose dripping like a faucet. The nervous nose running happens much less frequently and for shorter durations. She still wil jump or finch easily at small noises, but we're seeing progress.

Last night some of our neighbors were at the firepit so we brought her out with us. She was great with about 15 people out and just lay there calmly all night - you wouldn't have even known she was there.

Grand Mere State Park

2008-08-28T16:19:00.002-05:00

I'm doing my first posting from my phone, so we'll see how this goes...

We went to the Grand Mere State Park today as they have the only dog friendly beach anywhere nearby. Overall I'd say it was a bust. It couldn't be less convenient to get to - about .5 miles down a nature trail and what seems like another .5 miles over several large sand dunes.

It was all very secluded. Where some people might see nature and peace and quiet, Kat sees opportunity for someone to leave us for dead in the woods. But she sees nothing wrong with chasing someone's car in Cabrini Green when they hit her and fled... Go figure.

There was no one else on the beach, which normally would be nice but without other dogs there for Mags to play with she just laid on the beach and watched us get wet and try to call her to the water. It gets deeper a lot faster than Montrose so she probably wouldn't have enjoyed it much anyway. Add to that a dose of biting flies and we spent more time walking to and from the beach than at it.

We have some pics which we'll post when we're back home - I forgot the cable I need to get online here w/o going to a café or something.

We'll be hitting the park tonight and then try the restaurant, Bridges, which we've heard allows dogs on the patio. Hopefully the park works out better than the beach.

2008-08-27T13:12:00.003-05:00

Vacation update - we just spent 2 hours with Maggie at the Montrose dog beach. The second we walked in her tail was wagging and she was bouncing around. We weren't there 5 minutes and she was running around. The waves were bigger than last time we went which startled her a bit, but she was really brave and worked her way back in. We stood about 20 ft out in the lake and she'd come part way out, go back, come out a little further. Eventually she made a game of jumping the waves as they came in and she worked her way out to us. Her tail was wagging nearly the whole time. Later, back on the sand, she got into her "I'm going to play even if I don't know how to play with other dogs, so I'll run around in circles by myself"-mode. She ran with us a few times up and down the beach too. She really seemed to have a blast and so did we.

Again, we think it's building off of being around George and the other dogs yesterday. Any time we have time around other dogs in relatively close succession she kind of picks up where she left off from the previous day. We're really looking forward to this week. On the agenda: there's a beach that allows dogs about 20 miles north of New Buffalo that we've never scoped out, so we'll probably check it out tomorrow; there's a restaurant in Michigan City that allows dogs on the patio that we've heard about from others at the dog park; we'll try to hit the dog park in the evenings so we can get her some daily exposure to dogs during the week, without the downside of running into some of the sketchy characters that go there during the work day.

I'm sure she'll sleep like a baby on the way up to Michigan, she was on sensory overload at the beach today, and that's the most running around she's done in months.

2008-08-26T21:26:00.004-05:00

We just got home from Maggie's first "play-date" with George. George, as we mentioned on Saturday, was rescued from the same puppy mill as Maggie. George was awesome - he looks very much like Maggie (he was just groomed yesterday, so he's actually clean and trimmed - unlike our currently shaggy pooch). George was definitely not shy with the other dogs, and didn't care if a dog was 5 lbs or 70 lbs before engaging in play. If Maggie were eventually even 1/4 as playful as George, we'd be ecstatic.

They seemed to take to each other - Maggie certainly gave George much more sniff time than the other dogs. Later in the evening they both laid down together which Maggie doesn't do and they just seeemed comfortable with each other.

It was interesting to see how similar they were in some ways and very different in others. Apparently George also 'prances' on the leash, and he has very much of the same 'little person look'. Behavior-wise though, Maggie is a lot more timid and reserved.

George's parents, Carla and Justin, were really nice. They've had George going to doggie daycare twice a week and have had him in obedience training. They said he's come a long way since starting both of those activities. George even picked up a ball at the park today from another dog, which was a big step for him. We've held off on daycare up to this point thinking it would be a waste if Maggie is just going to sit in the corner and watch the other dogs, but now we're reconsidering. Carla & Justin said that's how George started off in day care, and now look at him, so we should give it a shot.

It was also nice to meet people who love to talk about their dog as much as we do, and convince us that we're not ridiculously obsessed or crazy (now, now, everyone keep your comments to yourselves). Hopefully we'll be getting back together soon!

Maggie didn't actually play at the park - as usual - she just supervised. But as I type this, she is completely passed out on her bed. Watching the other dogs play really tuckers her out.

Disappointing News . . .

2008-08-24T20:24:00.004-05:00

Hi, everyone - it's Kat. I haven't posted in a while, so I feel bad bringing disappointing news to Maggie's blog, but it's something I have to share.

On July 1st the Fond Du Lac Reporter published a story with the results of the trial of J.C. Heiberg. Who's that? The owner / operator of Maggie's puppy mill. The verdict? Not guilty. I'm speechless - - and angry, upset, and sick to my stomach. Who does this to animals? Who sets them free to do it again?

I try hard not focus on Maggie's past and let anger enter my mind, but it's hard. I know the best thing I can do for Maggie is to focus on her future. Steve and I are committed to giving Maggie the very best and everything she needs - - and lots of love! We just want her to be happy, healthy, and to know that she's safe.

But the past keeps coming back to haunt us. As I type this Maggie is literally having a nightmare and is crying out. I used to rush to her side and wake her, but everything we have read says to let her sleep through them in the hopes of her not remembering. We can't help but wonder if she'll spend the rest of her life tortured by her past.

In order to keep our focus positive we've deliberately not Googled J.C. Heiberg in the past. Tonight "curiosity killed the Kat". If we had known her case was going to trial what would we have done? Attended? Maybe. Called the prosecutor and offered our assistance? Absolutely.

In the end it's Maggie - and the other animals - who were robbed of their justice. Steve and I are blessed to have Maggie, and we give thanks for her each day. She is the love of our lives.

It's been in the blog in the past, but it's worth mentioning again - - PLEASE DO NOT BUY A PET FROM A RETAIL STORE! Pet stores keep puppy mills in business.

Here's the story from the Fond du Lac Reporter on July 1st (and a link with more info) . . .

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

A Fond du Lac County jury decided Tuesday afternoon that a 70-year-old woman was not guilty of mistreating up to 70 dogs, which authorities found housed in barns at her former Townline Road home in December 2007.

On a separate misdemeanor charge, J.C. M. Heiberg was found guilty Tuesday of not providing proper shelter for an animal.

Along with finding her not guilty of intentionally mistreating animals, the jury ruled she also was not guilty on two counts of obstructing an officer.

A sentencing hearing has been set for 10 a.m. July 21. Heiberg faces up to nine months in jail for the lone guilty verdict.

As a defense witness, Heiberg took the stand Tuesday morning, explaining to the court that she had a kennel license and was able to house the large number of animals she was keeping at her Townline Road home.

She said she was in the process of moving when authorities showed up on Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2007, to search her residence.

Heiberg said she first started moving her horses and some of her dogs to her new Kenosha home the Friday before that, but made daily trips to the Townline Road home to care for the animals.

“Were the animals fed and watered every day between Friday and Tuesday,” defense attorney Brian Mares asked during direct examination.

“Yes,” Heiberg answered.

According to a criminal complaint, when authorities from the Fond du Lac County Sheriff’s Department arrived at the home on Dec. 18, they found animal waste covering the floors of the barns where the animals were kept, with no food and little water for the dogs. Most of the water was frozen due to freezing temperatures at the time, according to the complaint.Two puppies were found dead, according to the complaint.

A Waupun Veterinary Clinic report concluded Heiberg was using her home to serve as an inhumane puppy mill in “an environment that kept the puppies alive but nothing else.”

Fond du Lac County Assistant District Attorney Jocelyn Jurva called detectives on the case to the stand during the first day of trial Monday. Testimony wrapped up Tuesday with the jury getting the case early in the afternoon.

After about three hours of deliberating, the jury returned with the verdict around 3:45 p.m.

This case is not the first time Heiberg has been charged with neglecting animals. Charges were sought after authorities searched her Townline Road home in December 2005 and found several animals without food or water. One dog was found dead in that instance.

Charges in that case were later dismissed on a prosecutor’s motion.

http://www.pet-abuse.com/cases/13052/WI/US/

2008-08-23T13:09:00.005-05:00

My cousins, Emily and Julie were in town for a few days this week for a visit. Maggie was her usual excitable self: running around, jumping on them, and barking crazily - she's such a hassle! Ok, not really - she just chilled on her bed the entire time. Julie and my aunt Sue are big fans of the blog, so it's about one of them got honorable mention here (if Sue & Tom ever came to visit, they'd be here too). It was great to see both of them again and hopefully they'll make it back here soon.

Maggie did really great at the dog park last weekend. She got to go on back-to-back days which seemed to really help. She didn't play with the other dogs at all, but she definitely showed a keen interest in several of them and you could see the wheels turning in her head that she was thinking about jumping in. She just didn't get up the courage to go for it. On Sunday you could tell that we were picking up where we left off from Saturday, so that was good to see. Maggie immediately started wagging her tail as we entered the park, which surprised us and encourages us that even if she isn't running around that she enjoys her time there.

We're hoping a few more trips with some of the more friendly dogs at the park will get her going again. Also ,this Tuesday we're meeting another couple and their dog, George, at a dog park in Chicago. They found us through the blog, and rescued George from the same puppy mill. We're hopeful that they hit it off and it will be great to trade stories as they both seem to have similar behaviors.

We're also taking more time week through Labor Day in Michigan. We always see the best progress with Maggie when we have several days in a row to spend with her full time, so we're looking forward to 6 days of Maggie time. We'd hoped to get that level of time with her over our 4th of July vacation, but that started the day after the Great Escape occurred and Maggie (aka "Boots") spent the week nursing her paws.

Maggie continues to enjoy her time in the car and the basement. We wish we could bottle up whatever goes through her head in the car and bring it into the house. She's such a different dog in the car - so curious, interested, and happy. We've also started bringing her over to the couch in our family room to sit with us (by the couch, not on the couch). This also seems to help and she seems to want to be by us now - in the early days if we brought her over here she was stressed out and couldn't get back to her bed fast enough. Now she'll lie here for hours next to us.

2008-08-15T17:41:00.009-05:00

One quick update - I was working from home today and was taking Maggie in to get her nails clipped over lunch.

I called Maggie down from the deck to "go to the car". She actually went - in the past we've always had to put her on the leash to guide her and get her to follow us to the garage.

As we walked in the garage, I immediately realized we might have a small issue. Before I called her down, I had gone to the car and opened the back door for her, and also put the garage door opener back on my visor. I accidentally left the driver door open while doing that, in addition to the back door. Consequently, Maggie got a little confused about which one was her door... this was the result.

We're off again to Michigan so we hope to have some fun stories from the dog park for Sunday night!

2008-08-14T20:28:00.005-05:00

Ok, it' been a couple of weeks (again). So lots to write about...

Unbelievably, this past Saturday was exactly 6 months from the day we brought Maggie home. Going back through the blog photos and thinking about how this poor pup was afraid to walk anywhere and we were carrying her around, it's hard to believe how far she has come. Watching her on a walk outside now - assuming it's not too windy and there aren't any sprinklers running nearby - you'd think she was like any normal dog. She looks so happy prancing around the neighborhood - and seeing Maggie happy makes us happy!

We took Mags to New Buffalo again this weekend, and on Sunday went to the dog park. She was a lot more interested than the last time we went. She didn't do her "go crazy and play" thing, but she was definitely thinking about it. She made a few moves like she would but always backed off - hopefully this weekend she'll finally commit. But any day where Maggie gets to go for a car ride is a good day in her book. And due to the never-ending construction on I94 she got extra car time on the way back home.

We've been trying a few new things with Maggie that seem to be helping her.

We've been taking her with us whenever we'll be in another room for an extended period of time. That means after breakfast she comes back upstairs with us while we get ready for work.

We've been doing that for maybe three weeks. On Tuesday our schedules were a little off and Maggie was still contemplating eating her breakfast when Kat got in the shower and I headed out for work. Kat heard something, and sure enough, Maggie had worked up the courage to just come upstairs after finishing her breakfast. That's really the first time she's just done something like that on her own so it was great to see.

Today she did the same thing again - twice really. This morning we were both upstairs and left her downstairs with her breakfast. Sure enough, I heard the little clink-clink of her tag and there she was! Then tonight, Kat was upstairs while Maggie and I were in the family room. I got up to go to the bathroom, came out and Maggie was gone. She'd gone upstairs to find her mom all on her own. We're hoping this is the beginning of her starting to feel comfortable to walk around the house on her own. Up until now she's only ever moved from point to point when told.

Also now that our basement is finished we've been taking her down there. She's starting to learn "let's go to the basement". Right now she only gets it if we're going down there while we say it and she can follow us. If we point and say it while we stay here then she gets confused and goes upstairs. But before even if we were going that direction she'd go upstairs so at least she's starting to figure it out.

It's great in the basement because she doesn't have a bed there so there's no clearly defined area for her. She doesn't exactly get up and run all around, but she moves around in a larger area than her bed allows which is a good thing.

Also, she's become the master of the Kong. You can see it in a couple of these pictures. We got this thing around the same time we got Maggie. It sat virtually untouched for months. At the most she'd hit it once. If a treat came out she'd hit it again, but the first time she hit it without something coming out she'd give up on it.

Now she's a riot to watch with it. She's using her paws to grab it and shake it back and forth and will nose it all around the area in front of the couch in the basement.

She's gotten where she's very relaxed in the basement and we think she enjoys being down there with us. She sprawls out on her side which I'd say indicates she's pretty comfortable.

We bought Maggie a 6 month birthday gift at our favorite little pet store - Beachtails - in New Buffalo. It's walking distance to our place, the people - and their dogs - are super nice, and they have all of the things we buy for Maggie (ie. good quality, non-Chinese stuff). It's similar to Kriser's here, but we do all of our shopping up there now. Kat does her best - every weekend - to support the new local business :) And I don't need any excuse to avoid the B.S. sales tax around here - but I digress...

We were so excited to give her this gift, since she's done so well with the Kong. Here's a picture. Basically it's a hard rubber ball with a portion "scooped" out. We knew with some frozen peanut butter in there we'd have all sorts of entertainment watching Maggie chase the ball around.

As it turns out, Maggie is too smart for that. We put the ball in front of her, full of anticipation of the entertainment to come. She nosed the ball once, brought it back to her, and then used her front paws to hold it in place while she spent the next 10 minutes eating all of the frozen peanut butter. She didn't let the ball roll around at all. It didn't really turn out as expected, but at least she's smart and comfortable enough to do that. 4 months ago she would have just watched it roll away and then taken a nap.

2008-07-28T20:21:00.004-05:00

Maggie's grandparents came up from Florida for a visit this past weekend. Over the past week or so we've really been trying to take Maggie wherever we can with us, whether it's running errands (where we're both there and don't have to leave her in the car) or other rooms in the house where we're working. So, with that in mind, Mags went for a ride down to Midway. I wasn't sure how she'd be in the car with two people she'd never met, but she was great.

I brought some treats for my parents to use to bribe her, which seem to have worked out well. My mom sat in the back with her and at one point Maggie was sitting up next to her and leaning on her.

We went on lots of long walks around the neighborhood. Of course, Maggie insisted that everyone walk in front of her, instead of some behind her. She also is really not fond of hoses, sprinklers or little American flags. Otherwise the walks were great and uneventful. On Sunday Maggie even walked with her grandpa holding the leash.

Maggie got two presents - a new safety harness (she probably won't love this, but it's for her own good) and some new beef treats. She really likes the treats - and they fit nicely into her Kong. Maggie had a great visit, and her grandparents got to see she's even more adorable in person! :)

Speaking of the Kong, Maggie has become a real pro. The Kong sat untouched for months, but now she pretty much empties it out every day while we're at work. She's also taken to playing with it more while we're home with her. She's so good at the first one that we bought her the "beehive" version to give her some variety and a new challenge.

I don't know if it's because we've had a few days off, we're bringing her more places, or what, but we've seen some small, yet noticeable progress. A few areas where we've seen some improvement:

Pupcicles - She loves these things, and pretty much has it down to a science knocking them out of the container and gulping them down. Unfortunately these are now about 2 minutes or less of entertainment.

Dinner - The last couple of days she's gotten much quicker at getting up to eat. We put her food bowl in the rack just off of her bed. Typically she'd think about going to it for at least several minutes, sometimes waiting until we left the room. At least for now she's getting up right away and going to it.

Basement - She's learning "let's go to the basement". She still has some work on this, with about 50% of the time her ending up upstairs, but she's getting there. The biggest thing in the basement though is that she doesn't have a bed or brown towel. She doesn't exactly get up and wander around, but so far she's shown that she'll expand her territory somewhat and has ventured across areas larger than her towel allows. We're trying to combine this area with her Kong and hope she chases it further (right now if the Kong goes off of her towel, most times that's the end of the game).

Coming in the house - In the evening we sometimes still have to tell her to come in 8-10 times, but she's getting better at it and is definitely better other times of the day. She's also gotten good about going to her bed no matter the time of day. There for a while at nighttime she'd just run straight upstairs, which wasn't good when it was muddy out and we didn't have a chance to wipe her paws down (this is done when on her downstairs bed).

The car - Kat discovered this one. Because it's harder for Kat to get Mags out of the car, she started pulling her feet out to hang out of the door to try to get her out. Reluctantly, at first, Maggie worked her way out of the car. She still hasn't gotten out on command, but seems to be getting better at it. She really, really loves car rides. Today, Kat decided to bring Maggie down and pick me up from work in the Loop instead of me taking the train. It was hilarious watching Maggie watch all of the pedestrians heading to the train station. She was just very interested and curious watching the masses pass by. I guess this is probably the most people Maggie has ever seen at once.

We're really hoping and expect that with even more time and attention Maggie will just continue to improve. We're looking forward to taking some time off next month to spend another extended stay in Michigan with her - and hope that this time she's not injured for our vacation and we can spend it focusing on her.

2008-07-19T21:48:00.003-05:00

We finally took Mags to Montrose Beach today. The city has an enclosed portion of the beach which allows dogs off-leash. We've been dying to take Maggie to the beach, either here or in MI (but after the paw injury, our plans for the beach in MI were postponed).

First we got Maggie to go into the water on the leash. It was good she was still on leash the first time as the noise of her walking in the water scared her, which caused her to make more noise, and led to a minor panic. Once she calmed down, she wouldn't walk anywhere until we finally made a move to walk out of the water.

We walked around the beach a bit with her and tried to get her to go back into the water on the leash. She wouldn't go at all. Eventually I picked her up and carried her in a ways and put her down where it was still very shallow. She was still on leash and refused to walk with us through the water. We decided to see what she'd do if we took her off leash in the water. For a few minutes she looked longingly at the shore, and we both were sure she was going to bolt back to dry land. Finally, after many "let's go Maggie!"'s, she took a few steps toward us. Before we knew it she was following us around through the water, just like on land.

After a while we walked her back out onto the beach and walked around some more. Then we decided to try coaxing her into the water. Shw sniffed around some of the other dogs, and seemed like she might want to play, but ultimately never fully committed to it.

Still off leash, Kat & I went into the lake and called to Maggie. She did her little Maggie dance at the edge of the water. You could see the wheels turning as she tried to psych herself up and talk herself into going into the water, and trying to find just the right spot to go in. Sure enough, after a minute or two she walked into the lake after us and followed us out. We walked back and forth many times to get her used to it and just enjoying the experience. We were all feeling pretty brave at this point so we coaxed her out just to the point where she couldn't touch any more. And our little Mags swam!

She won't be appearing in the Olympics in August, but she gave it a great first effort. She looked like a little sea otter floating out there, doing little baby doggie paddles. She was a little nervous, but we were both there to hold her and guide her back to where she could touch down again. At one point she was paddling like crazy in probably 6 inches of water before we stopped her, pulled her feet down, and showed her that she could stand.

We got out of the water and back in with her one more time just to reinforce the act of getting into the water, and she did another brief swim.

We were both incredibly happy for Maggie, and you could immediately see a difference in her self confidence. When we were on the beach, her tail was wagging - not just swinging back in forth in tune with her gait, but really wagging. The only other time we've ever seen her wag her tail was while running like a mad dog at the park with the other dogs. She was so happy and confident, it was such a great feeling to see.

We also met a woman there with her dog who was also rescued and we were able to swap very similar stories. She had her dog about a year and had dealt with many of the same challenges we are, so it was good to hear and get some more advice.

We can't wait to get her back to the beach - if the weather holds out we'll try to go again tomorrow. Maybe we're imaging it, but ever since the beach we feel like Maggie has a whole new level of confidence and seems happier, so we want to keep reinforcing it with her.

To Carla, that's awesome that you rescued a dog from the same mill. We'd love to get together with the dogs and exchange notes. You can write us at katbrangan AT hotmail dot com.

2008-07-07T22:17:00.003-05:00

Two more quick notes from our vacation that we forgot to tell you about -

First, Maggie got a pillow from the new pet store in New Buffalo ("Beach Tails"). We end up stopping in here pretty much every trip now. They keep telling us to bring Maggie, but we opted out of taking "Boots" (Kat took to calling her that this past week) just yet. Anyway, she always ends up with something - usually edible - but she really seems to like the new pillow. Kat picked it up our first night there to try to make Mags feel better. One night as I was going to bed I looked over and she was sleeping with her head perfectly resting on it - dumb luck I'm sure, but it was still adorable.

Second, well, I guess this also involves a Beach Tails purchase. Kat bought some doggie yogurt "Yoghund" for Mags. We gave it to her in a bowl, which she licked a few times before deciding either to move it, or that she wanted to eat it all at once. It was very funny when she picked up the whole chunk of frozen yogurt and jammed the entire thing in her mouth. She looked up with this giant frozen mass in her mouth, which then began to melt at the same time as triggering her saliva glands. Huge drips of now not-so-frozen yogurt and saliva ran down her face before she finally dropped it on her towel. The look on her face during all of this was priceless.

2008-07-06T17:27:00.001-05:00

Maggie is doing much better now that she's had her paw-tectors on for a little over a week. Her paws are looking much better, but we're going to give them a few more days before taking her booties away.

We started taking her on some longer walks down along the Marina to town and back over the past couple of days. Maggie was fine with the longer distance and it really helped to improve her mood to be back out and about. Her boots were quite the attraction in New Buffalo.

Everyone we passed either stopped to ask us about them or we heard "Did you see those boots?" behind us - or the kid who exclaimed "Mommy! That dog has shoes on!". Most people I'm sure thought they were goofy, but a few people asked where we got them - maybe Mags will start a trend in New Buffalo and we can make fun of the other dogs in their boots this summer.

We took Maggie to the Michigan City dog park both Thursday and Friday. Thursday was just us there for a while, and then some creepy guy came with his two Newfoundlands. Those dogs were either aggressive or they played very rough. Maggie clearly didn't like the way they were coming at her (she boxed one in the face with her bootie) so we got her out of there. Their owner did nothing to try to control his dogs and didn't pick up after them either. We considered that day kind of a bust - and figured that's what we get for going to the dog park during a work day - that's when you get the creepy unemployed guy.

We tried again Friday which went much better. Some of the friends Maggie made during her first trip to this park were there, along with several other friendly pups. She made a couple moves like she would play but then backed off. Maybe next time when she isn't in her booties she'll come back out and play. She seemed to enjoy the park though and this put Mags in a better mood the rest of the weekend. Oh, and of course, Maggie really just lives for going for car rides, so we probably could have driven her in circles around the block and she'd have been happy.

Maggie was completely fine with the fireworks. When she was at home alone, we turned the fan on which drowns out nearly every noise from outside, so she just slept through those (we can tell when she's been sleeping from her "bed head"). Everyone and their brother in New Buffalo likes to shoot of their own fireworks, so she had plenty of exposure to them on walks. This is another Maggie mystery - you sneeze or make one funny move, she jumps out of her fur - but an M80 going off 100 yards away doesn't phase her one bit. We're not sure if she just equates it to thunder, which she also had zero reaction to, or what she's thinking, but we're very happy that they don't bother her.

Maggie was really in a good mood by the time she got in the car for the ride home. She finished off a tendon that she had in progress over the past couple of days. She drank plenty of water out of her travel water bowl (shown in the first picture). Up until now she's not really taken to that. She even drank some water while Kat was pouring it out of the bottle, which she's never done, but is another one of those normal dog behaviors we love to see.

All of these pics are from the car ride home and our cheery li'l pup.

2008-07-02T09:01:00.000-05:00

For these kinds of stories, Kat tells me I should always start with the end - so to start: Maggie is OK and safe at home with us.

We had a very scary incident with Maggie this past Thursday, and while it's a story we don't really want to share, we feel we need to share the bad as well as the good on the blog. As we've blogged in the past, we like to take her out to the local middle school which has a fenced in area and they don't mind dogs on non-school days. This is the park where Maggie met her friends River, Chip and Holly (the other dog from the running video).

The one problem with this park is that it's 99% fenced in, and there are two entranceways that are always open. The first few times we went there, this was a major point of concern, but Maggie never made a move toward those gates and always stuck within 20 feet or so of us no matter where we went in the park. So we became used to the fact that Maggie was always perfect and stuck close to us. We've both taken Maggie to the park by ourselves and it's always been fine - until Thursday.

Kat called me to say her plane back to Chicago was pulling away and that she'd be home in a few hours. Maggie and I were just walking into the park when we said goodbye on the phone. I took Maggie off of the leash like always, but this time she started moving back toward the entranceway.

I still didn't really think she'd go through, but I was nervous that she was even walking that way. I didn't want to startle her by coming after her, so I took a few steps further into the park using words she understands to follow us like "let's go!". Maggie kept walking further away, and eventually went outside the park.

I had to go after her now so I ran out the gate and called after her. Maggie was doing her fast walk away from me and heading north. I ran a little bit, and as I got close Maggie went into full on run mode. Of course, I had on my sandals too, so the clomp-clomp of those couldn't have helped. I don't know what was going through her head, if it started out as play or what, but it quickly turned to panic for both of us.

This is very scary and I'll skip the details. Suffice it to say, Maggie ran across many streets and I could never get close to grabbing her. This total chase lasted probably 30-45 minutes although it seemed like an eternity, through about a mile and half of streets. At one point she ran fast enough that I lost sight of her. Between seeing Maggie run through traffic, and just losing her altogether, I can't describe the feeling of complete desperation, powerlessness and hopelessness. I really thought we'd lost her.

Fortunately, some complete strangers jumped in and saved the day. I never, ever would have caught her on my own. Three or four guys, who didn't know each other either, all jumped in to help pin her down. One guy finally got hold of her collar and I got the leash on her to take her home. I was so tired, relieved and shaken that I didn't really properly thank the guys who helped or even get a good look at them. I wish now there was a way to properly thank them, but I have no idea who they are.

Maggie was exhausted and bleeding - I thought from one paw. I got her back home, some water, some ice packs and then looked at her paws. She'd torn the top layer off of the large pad on all four paws. I took her to the emergency vet on Clybourn. They cleaned her up, gave her a shot of antibiotics and for the pain and gave prescription pills for both as well.

They also advised that we go to Petco and buy some booties for her. They said normally they'd bandage a paw in that condition, but since it was all four that wasn't going to work well.
Kat got home from the airport a little after we got home from the emergency vet and buying her booties, and I filled her in on what happened - it wasn't quite the happy homecoming she'd envisioned, but at least Maggie was at home.

We feel really bad for Maggie and that she's injured, but we're also incredibly thankful and lucky that nothing worse happened to her and that we have her back.

She's been doing well. She is now used to her boots and walking pretty well in them. The first couple days she was incredibly awkward in the boots, her feet were still raw, and she was sore from her run. Her feet are looking much better now, having turned back to black and are already looking tougher. Her back-left paw was the worst and still is lagging behind the others but not by much. She still has at least the rest of this week in the boots.

We're in Michigan all week and we'd hoped to do all sorts of fun stuff with her, but all of that is off the table while she recovers. There's plenty of time for that though in the future and at least she's safe and sound!

We've learned our lesson. Mags is only off leash now at 100% enclosed places (the dog park in Michigan City is 100% enclosed, so we have that). And we have to remember that we still don't truly know her and as "perfect" as she is most of the time, she can still act unpredictably. 99% of the time she'd probably be fine, but we can't take that chance that she'll run again and I don't believe we'll get so lucky again.

Not to be dramatic, but this was the scariest moment in my life thinking we'd lost Maggie or worse. We can't imagine anything happening to her. Next week will be her 5th month with us and we can't even remember what it was like to not have Maggie in our life.

2008-06-22T18:23:00.000-05:00

Ok, we've been remiss in updating the blog the last few weeks, so there's lots to catch up on here...

Since we last wrote, Maggie has learned a new trick - getting in the car on her own. As with most of Maggie's behavior, we didn't really train her, she just started doing it. She absolutely loves the car, and now the second we open the door she runs and jumps in. That's great, but the really good trick will be when she learns to get out on her own. There's really nothing like wrestling 58 lbs of dead weight (or trying to get away from you) out of the car. So far she shows no signs of coming close to jumping out on her own though. For Maggie, apparently it's not about the destination, just the journey.

And yes, she's 3 lbs overweight. We overshot, so she's on a little bit of a diet now until she gets back to her goal weight.

Mags has completely given up on going to the bathroom in our yard now. So she has evolved from the dog who wouldn't go, to not going if we were looking, to not going on the leash, to going on the mulch but not with a leash, then sometimes on walks, to now only going on walks. She knows which times of the day we take her in the yard and which times we go on walks, so now if it's a "yard time" she just runs upstairs to bed. So, she just misses that chance to go now. Not sure what her hang up is, but it's not a huge deal now. She'll have to re-learn it in the winter time though.

Two weeks ago our niece, Skylar, got to meet Maggie. We took Maggie on a field trip to her Grandma Lela's for a cookout (we also want her to be familiar with Lela's home in case she has to stay overnight sometime). Kat's brother, Kevin, his wife Shannon, and daughter Skylar were in town for a visit. Skylar was adorable, and very gentle with Mags. Of course, Maggie pretty much just sat there like she always does.

2008-06-02T21:42:00.000-05:00

Maggie = 1
Car Safety Harness = 0

As we've reported Maggie's not a huge fan of her car safety harness. I've caught her chewing on it a few times and she has stopped when told. Well, last night coming home from Michigan I thought she was doing some intense grooming when all of a sudden she popped up in the backseat free from her harness. Our little Houdini chewed it in half.

Poor Steve did a lot of research to find the safest harness and now we're back at square one. In the meantime Maggie will be roaming freely around the backseat panting in our ears.

On a positive note we had a great weekend in Michigan with Miss Maggie. On Saturday we were walking thru town when a woman pulled her car over because she wanted to meet Maggie (seriously, things like this happen to us all the time now). It turns out she's a local resident who recently adopted the labradoodle of a friend who passed. We exchanged doodle stories and then she told us about a dog park located within a county preserve in Michigan City. Guess where we went the next day?

So Sunday morning we went to check out the dog park. It's a big, beautiful dog park located within a 112 acre county forest preserve. As usual, we arrived and everyone ran up to meet Maggie (dogs and owners). There was a Beagle that she tried to play with right away, but he denied Maggie and she was a bit discouraged. We kept walking around because we could tell she really wanted to play, but just couldn't find the right dog (all the others were too small, too big, etc). Mags finally gave up and decided she didn't need anyone else to play and just started running wildly around in a circle weaving in and out of other dogs and owners. The whole crowd - owners AND dogs - just stopped and watched. Finally a puppy, Gill, decided to join in and they had a great time running and playing. Nothing makes us happier than seeing her let go of her past and have fun!

We've often joked about Maggie's "prance" of a walk and get comments from people about it all the time. At the park a little girl pointed to Mags and said to her mom, "Look! She walks like a show dog!!" It's like some Rags-To-Riches story - - Ha! Ha!

The park charges a small fee based on the honor system - - it was the best $3 we've spent and we look forward to returning soon.

Post-park Maggie got a very thorough brushing because I'm crazy worried about fleas and ticks. She's had her Frontline Plus treatment, but I'm still worried.

Saturday Steve and I celebrated our five year wedding anniversary. We enjoyed a lovely meal at a small Inn near our place in Michigan and spent the entire time talking about our favorite topic - - Maggie!

2008-05-28T21:35:00.000-05:00

The Oprah Winfrey Show is re-running their episode on puppy mills tomorrow (Thursday 5/29/08). If you missed the "most-talked about show of the year" please tune in.

2008-05-26T20:13:00.001-05:00

After posting, I thought of one other noteworthy moment from the weekend. Today we walked into town for lunch, and Kat stayed with Mags on some benches along the street while I ran into the deli for sandwiches. I ran back out of the deli to get Kat's 2nd choice of bread, since they were out of choice numero uno.

Kat and Mags were in the middle of a photo shoot on the street. Some photographers were in town and claimed (rightfully so, we think) that Maggie was the "cutest dog they ever did see".

I came back out 10 minutes later with the sandwiches, and several people were surrounding Kat and Maggie on the bench. She's a very popular girl.

Some day she's going to cause a car accident. I can't count the number of people we've seen making "aww, look at that dog!" faces and pointing as they drive down the street.

Memorial Weekend

2008-05-26T19:13:00.000-05:00

Maggie's Memorial Weekend started with a spa day with Kat on Friday. She went in for a bath and grooming at Kriser's. We were a little concerned about how much they might take off and that she might look like a shaven poodle when they were done, but they did an excellent job. They even gave her a scarf to boot. She looks better than ever.
Friday night we went up to Michigan - this was Maggie's first full weekend up there. After a stressful Friday with the grooming, and then a new place Friday night, Saturday didn't get off to the best start.

The one big difference in Michigan is that we don't have a fenced in yard, so she's on the leash all of the time. That, combined with the new surroundings, had Maggie a little tense in the beginning. Getting her to relax outside and enjoy the weather was a challenge. We hooked her leash on the leg of our patio table and tried to get her to chill.

First she would only stand, uncomfortably.

Eventually (after like an hour), she decided to sit. She looks happy here, but that's just her playing to the camera. Don't be fooled.

And then, finally, she plopped down on the patio. Though she was going to have nothing to do with her treat (the 'bully stick'). She wasn't quite that comfortable yet. Once she decided to lay down we took her leash off. There's a very high inertial threshold for Maggie to get moving once she's lying down so we were pretty confident she wasn't going anywhere.

We had one incident Saturday morning, shortly after we finished our cereal on the patio. While still in standing-mode, Maggie pulled hard enough to move the patio table. The table isn't very heavy, and the thought had crossed my mind that attaching her to the table might not be the best of ideas - but I'd convinced myself that she generally doesn't move quickly, or with enough momentum to move the table much, so we were fine.

That turned out not to be the case. Maggie didn't pull very hard, but it was hard enough to move the table an inch or two. What I hadn't foreseen was the cycle this could begin.

The table moved. That scared Maggie. The quicker Maggie moved, the more the table chased after her, and so on. The end result was the table ending up dragged through the "landscaping" (ie. mulch with some tall grasses) before I caught ahold of it and the untimely demise of one cereal bowl.

From that point on, Maggie's leash was attached to the leg of a patio chair - and only when one of us was seated in said chair.

By Sunday night, Maggie was exhausted and making herself comfortable on her bed, as you can see in the photos above.

We went on many, many walks in the area - mainly down by the water. By Sunday and Monday, this was all old hat to Mags and she was more relaxed both inside the condo and out. We rounded out the trip with a visit to her new friend Nina. Nina is our neighbor's 11 year old (estimated - they also adopted) Lab. Nina is very mellow, and just the right speed for Maggie. A lot of sniffing ensued and they seemed agreeable enough.

Our biggest concern heading into the weekend was that we'd spend endless hours trying to get Maggie to go #1 on the leash, and wakeful nights stressing over the fact that she hadn't gone in X hours. Right away, Maggie put these concerns to rest - she now is completely cool with doing any and all types of business on the leash. And she's figured out to just pull off into the grass on our walks and go whenever needed. That made the weekend much more enjoyable for us, and now that we're over the first hump, we're sure future weekends will go much smoother.

Next weekend (weather permitting) we're planning on taking her to the beach - stay tuned!

What have you done with the real Maggie??

2008-05-20T20:14:00.001-05:00

I think only the words of Harry Caray are appropriate for this evening. "HOLY COW!"

We went to the park to see if we could get a repeat of Sunday's performance from Maggie. We ended up with so much more.

We met two new dogs, Holly and Jackson. Right away, Maggie seemed to take to Holly (and her owner too). We were so proud and taken aback when Maggie approached Holly to follow her around to sniff her - and also walked up to Holly's owner to say hello. She's never really approached anyone other than us.

But then everything we knew about Maggie went out the window. She started running around and playing with Holly like we'd never seen before. Thankfully, this was the first night in a long time we've remembered to take the camera to the park. We captured some video of Maggie playing. I've posted two videos below. Yes, this is the same dog that we picked up just over 3 months ago and up until a few weeks ago hadn't run or played at all.

After quite a while of playing, we finally had to stop Maggie. She was frothing at the mouth, breathing so heavily, and so drunk on fun we were afraid that she was going to collapse. It was like Norm getting up from his bar stool and suddenly deciding to run a marathon - maybe a little too much all at once. She definitely had a blast and we can't wait to get back to the park tomorrow!

Holy cow!

Unleash the hound!

2008-05-18T19:30:00.000-05:00

We took Mags to the park again today. She watched her new friend Chip play with the tennis ball. We met Chip yesterday at the park - Chip is another F1 (50/50) labradoodle and is full of energy.

We did our usual run back and forth in the park. Keep in mind when we first started this a couple of weeks ago, Maggie would lag behind and eventually give a few gallops to catch up and that was it. Then she started about a week ago running with us a few times.

Well, today, Maggie outdid herself again. Not only was she running with us, but she was running ahead of us and all around us. She was, literally, running circles around us - skidding in the dirt, doing 360's, running between us, jumping all around. And she did this many, many times. This was the first time we were worn about before Maggie. She was having so much fun, and so energetic, we just kept running back and forth, back and forth.

So, while everyone else's dog will chase a ball, ours will only chase us. At least we'll be getting our exercise too...

We'll have to get a video of her running and playing in the park soon - you wouldn't recognize her! I can't express how great it is to see her coming out of her shell like this and having so much fun.

Ruh Roh Rorge

2008-05-15T22:06:00.000-05:00

About a year ago Steve and I watched Bailey (from the photos below) run right thru the screen door at Dan and Pam's house. The screen split right down the middle. Luckily, Bailey was not hurt.

This week Maggie went right thru our screen door. She's fine, too.

Our painters started Monday and all the furniture is moved around - - it has Maggie out of sorts (to say the very least). In a moment of nervous confusion Maggie went right thru the screen. She's ok and that's what is most important. The screen needed to be replaced anyway.

While the accident is similar, the circumstances are not. Bailey was happily playing and bouncing around when she blissfully ran thru their screen. Maggie, on the other hand, was anxious and nervous and frantically scrambled thru ours.

We talk a lot in the blog about Maggie's accomplishments, but even after three months of being safe and well cared for in our home she still can't let go of her past and relax in her new environment.

When we're out and about everyone who meets Maggie comments on her beautiful eyes and timid nature. Those are two of the many things that make her so sweet (another word often used by people who meet Maggie). But, it's the fact that everyone focuses on her timid nature that stands out to me - - it reminds me that Maggie still has a lot of progress to make.

2008-05-12T21:52:00.000-05:00

We took Maggie to the park again tonight and went through what is now our standard routine - we take her off of the leash and we walk around the park while she walks between us. Over the past few trips, we've started doing a sprint and eventually Maggie will fall far enough behind that she'll run to catch us. Her run is pretty amusing as it's more of a series of bounding leaps.

Tonight Maggie surprised us by not falling behind and she ran (bounded) with us the length of the park. It's absolutely hysterical to watch her run. And, she managed to do this more than once. During the third run though a playful mastiff thought it would join in the running fun and jumped (playfully) on Maggie. This startled Maggie - and us - so that was kind of the end of running tonight. We look forward to our next trip and hope this becomes part of the standard fun at the park. We'll try to remember the video camera so you can see a few seconds of the playful side of Mags.

3 months and counting . . .

2008-05-09T22:25:00.000-05:00

Today marks three months since Maggie joined our family. We celebrated by giving her a Jumbo Spring treat - YUM! I can't even remember what life was like before Maggie. Actually, I don't even want to try to remember what life was like before Maggie.

May 2008 is full of milestones for our family. Not only does it mark three months with Maggie, but on May 31st Steve and I will celebrate our five year wedding anniversary. Marrying Steve was the smartest decision I've ever made. Adopting Maggie has been the most rewarding decision I've ever made.

For those of you who have been following Maggie's progress, thank you!! Whether you've rescued a pet, are considering rescuing a pet, or are just a Maggie-fan, we hope you've enjoyed this blog.

2008-05-05T20:30:00.001-05:00

We saw so much progress with Mags at the park the other day when she was around the other dogs, that we finally had to try to get her to meet her cousin Bailey (not genetically, but if it's Uncle Dan and Aunt Pam, then it must be so).

First we went on a trip to Kriser's - the pet food store, where she also gets her nails done. We thought it would be good to take her there and not get her nails clipped, so it wasn't always about something she didn't really want to do.

Oh, but let's back up - her safety harness (ie. seat belt) for the car finally showed up. Maggie is now officially safer in the car than any kid in the 70's. We put the harness on her in the house first to let her get a little used to it. We got the evil eye for quite a while while Maggie stood there like we'd just wrapped a cold, wet jacket around her.

Once in the car, she became her old "I love the car"-self, so at least we have that going for us.

Anyway, she was fine at Kriser's and I'm sure happy that she didn't have to get her nails clipped for a change. They gave us some raw beef to try as treats for her. Kat's still cringes a little at the raw thing - she can't bare watching her little girl tear away at meat, bones and tendons like... some kind of animal - but we'll give it a shot.

So then we were off to visit Pam, Dan & Bailey. Their yard is fenced in, so we decided to put both of them in the yard while we sat just outside the fence to let them bond. Both dogs are pretty chill, so they did the obligatory sniffing (remember, Maggie just started doing this a couple days before) then kind of stood/sat around.

Maggie went both #1 and #2 in their yard (again, sorry guys!) which was kind of a surprise. Mags doesn't really like going #1 except in her spot here (she's never done it on a walk) and generally has stage fright, so with 4 of us plus Bailey, it was a little unexpected. Maybe it was a territorial thing, who knows.

The dogs got along really well, and we all ended up hanging out on their deck. Maggie was great, following us around and being very brave. She even drank some water, which she also doesn't like to do except at home (one of our future problems in Michigan, I'm sure). She's come a long way since the day we got her when Dan & Pam first met her!

We went to the park later, and Mags did her follow-the-leader routine. We ran again and watched her bound playfully behind us. The bounding usually only lasts about 15-20 seconds though, and then I think she gets worn out so that's all we can get out of her now.

Later that night we went to a bar & grill where they let us sit out on the outdoor patio with Maggie and our waitress was nice enough to bring her a bowl of water (not surprisingly, she didn't drink it). She was perfect sitting next to the table and we can't wait to take her out again.

It was all a very big day for Maggie, so of course she slept like a rock.

Tonight we went to the park again and met two new dogs - Morgan and River. We found out River is somewhat famous - if you recall a few years back the helicopter over-head footage of a stray dog stuck on the ice on who was rescued by a police officer - that's him. He was very friendly - and his owner was great to talk to about his experiences with River and the stages of progress he went through. At one point River was maybe a little too friendly and was bothering Maggie. She spun around and let River know that he'd crossed a line. She wasn't aggressive beyond that, she just let him know, he backed off and that was it. It was good to see that she at least had the confidence to do that much.

Tonight it was so nice we had dinner out on the deck. We decided to try to get Maggie to eat out there too, as a practice run for Michigan since she'll have to eat away from her usual spot. She wolfed it down in no time, so hopefully that won't be a problem. Of course that was all a lot of excitement today, so she's back in her usual spot, nearly passed out.

2008-05-03T12:15:00.000-05:00

Just a few days ago I reported that Maggie still has two obstacles to overcome - our backdoor and standing up in the morning to go outside. Well, standing up in the morning = DONE. The very next morning she got up on her own and today makes three days in a row. Good girl, Maggie!

Thursday night we took Maggie to the park and it was busy with people and pets. As soon as we arrived a friendly lab came right up to introduce himself and to chat Maggie up with a few friendly barks. The crowd looked friendly (both people and pets) so we headed over to introduce ourselves and to see if we could entice Maggie to play with her peers. She stood firmly planted behind us watching the other dogs play fetch and run around. Her big moment came when she sniffed another dog who trotted over to say hello.

Actually there were two big moments at the park. I have to set up the 2nd . . . Maggie likes to walk right in the middle of Steve and me no matter if she's on the leash or off the leash. If we take a step, Maggie takes a step. If we stop, Maggie stops. If we accidentally get out of formation Maggie freezes - it must be a comfort thing for her. Well, to get Maggie her exercise sometimes all three of us run around the park (the things we do for this dog!). Well, it started to drizzle Thursday night and we needed to head home so we did our group run on the way out of the park and all of a sudden Maggie was running / jumping / leaping. It was like she was trying to mimic what she'd seen the other dogs do. She was playing!!!!

Ok - so now you're all thinking, "I can't believe they run like that in front of everyone else." No, no, no. Other pets and parents were already gone because they get to use the convenient entrance where you walk under a simple arm-gate that prevents people from parking in the school lot over night. Maggie doesn't like to walk under that gate so we have to walk all the way to the other side to use the "open" entrance. Some day she'll learn that that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line (or, if she's bad at math like me she won't).

This morning we went to the park and got Maggie to run / jump / leap again. Progress!

2008-04-30T20:34:00.000-05:00

Don't make Princess Margaret mad!

This weekend I (Kat) went out of town and Maggie went on a hunger strike. Since she wouldn't eat breakfast, but would eat dinner it was a half-hearted hunger strike - - but her message was heard loud and clear.

Does this mean she's forgotten her former puppy mill life and can only remember her days as our spoiled pup? Either way we're looking at the hunger strike as an indication that she's bonding with us. YEAH!

A few weeks ago I came home from work to find Maggie standing off her bed looking down at a small wet spot that was left behind. I think she got excited to see me and wet a little. I don't want it to become a regular habit, but it was an exciting Sally Field-type moment for me (She likes me! She really, really likes me!).

We can now walk up to Maggie without her cowering her head, but she still doesn't like fast moves. If she's making too much noise during the night and I ask her to go back to sleep she will. She understands, "Do you want to go for a walk?", and waits patiently for us at the door. Maggie goes to her food bowls about two feet off her bed, but only if we're not in sight (we spend a lot of time sitting on the stairs). She does take treats from our hands.

Maggie's two remaining obstacles are our backdoor and standing up in the morning to go outside (she's not a morning dog - who can blame her???). Now that the weather is above freezing we've been able to leave the backdoor open and let her come inside when she's ready. She really has to psych herself up for the challenge and paces around the deck for a bit before building up her courage to enter. This too shall pass.

As the thermometer rises so does Maggie's fan base. With more and more people out and about the comments on her "beautiful big brown eyes" and her "prance" of a walk flow faster than beer at Wrigley Field. Like a true diva Maggie is simply too cool to acknowledge her fans - - that's what her entourage (Steve and me) are for ;-).

We offer our apologizes for being absentee bloggers, and thank you for staying with with us.

2008-04-15T20:55:00.000-05:00

Update . . . Maggie's super-bladder can hold "it" for 24 hours. This weekend was a wee-bit stressful (pardon the pun) for our family. I have new appreciation for the saying, "This is harder for me than it is for you."

So how's it going? Maggie is half way there. She is going in her new spot (a mulched dog area in our backyard). The leash part is still to come and we're just going to tackle that in Michigan. This past weekend was stressful - - for all of us. Steve and I felt like we were back at Day 1. Poor Maggie felt like she was being punished. The new spot is merely us trying to save what is left of our lawn. The leash is absolutely necessary for her safety in Michigan where we don't have a fenced-in yard. She's a smart girl and we know that soon enough this "experience" will be a distant memory.

The rest of the weekend was dedicated to treats and flea/tick prevention. First the treats . . .

A six month supply of Maggie's favorite treat is being shipped to our home. Beef tendon anyone? Yuuummmm. Now that we know what she likes, ordering her treats online is the most economical choice. Maggie also loves a her Kong Bone smeared with peanut butter - - and then FROZEN! Maggie thanks her Aunt Pam for this tip!! Watching Maggie with this treat is pure joy for us as she demonstrates "regular" doggie behaviors. We'll try to capture this moment on camera and post the results - - it's adorable!!

Steve was in charge of ordering treats, and I was in charge of flea and tick prevention. My task wasn't nearly as fun. There are so many options - and so many opinions on what is best (and what is harmful) that I spent a good portion of the weekend reading clinical trials and researching active ingredients and side effects. In the end I decided on Frontline Plus and am waiting for that supply to be delivered. As the start of Michigan-season looms I'm anxious to get started with those treatments. BTW . . . I didn't read the label of a single food item I ingested today.

Maggie met her Grandma B on Saturday and was doted on extensively. Maggie showed her Grandma what a good girl she is - - a good thing because it looks like due to our work schedules Maggie may stay at Grandma's for a few nights in May.

That's all for now . . .

2008-04-12T09:20:00.001-05:00

What are your plans for the weekend? We're potty re-training (no, Maggie isn't having accidents in the house . . . read on).

As you may have read in this blog Maggie went to her Michigan home last weekend for a day trip. The visit was a success with one exception . . . Maggie wouldn't go potty. All the way there and all the way back she held it. Maggie has a super-bladder that can last 12 hours. It really stresses me out!! She has one spot in our yard where she goes. Period.

We don't have a fenced-in yard in Michigan so Princess Margaret is going to have to go in a different spot and on a leash - - and the time to learn that technique is now (she's outside with Steve as I type). Maggie's a smart dog so we know she'll get this, but with the cold and rain we're hoping she gets it really fast ;-)

Stay tuned . . .

2008-04-06T20:31:00.000-05:00

Lots of stuff to report, from chew toys to Michigan -

Yesterday, we gave Maggie a 12" beef tendon. Sounds delicious, right? Maggie loved it. The folks at Kriser's said some dogs will go about 15 minutes or so and then get tired, and some will just chew the entire thing. Guess which category Maggie fell in to? After about 80-90 minutes of non-stop chewing, it was Maggie - 1, Beef Tendon - 0.

Of course this exhausted her, so other than rooting on the Jayhawks, she slept like you wouldn't believe. It was great though to finally see something occupy her for so long, make her happy, and - bonus - not make her sick! We see lots of tendons in Maggie's future.

Overall she seemed much more relaxed yesterday, at Kriser's and around the house. Even the folks at Kriser's noticed that she'd changed since her last visit and wasn't as skitish.

Maggie also got a visit from her Uncle Dan, who she hadn't seen since her first night with us. Of course we told her not to jump up and get all crazy and excited, so she stayed put on her towel and was well behaved with her Uncle.

Today it was finally nice enough for us to introduce Maggie to Michigan. Maggie was awesome during the car ride there and back. She was definitely excited, but also was able to partake in her favorite activity for most of the ride - sleep.

She got to meet several of our her new neighbors and see her second home. She hasn't yet picked out "her spot" at the new home. With all of the activity she was always up and about - mostly outside enjoying the sunshine. We took advantage of the fact that there's almost no one there in April and walked down to the Marina, down some of the piers, and over the bridge by the beach (no dogs allowed on the beach, so we didn't get to the lake yet).

It was so quiet, we think Maggie really enjoyed it. Every weekend Maggie seems to make progress in leaps and bounds, and even more so the more time she gets to spend outside. During the week she's a little more status quo. We can't wait to get her up there again and get lots of outside time to see her to continue to grow and figure out what it means to be a dog!

2008-04-05T22:12:00.000-05:00

ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK, BABY!

Maggie says...

2008-04-05T14:45:00.000-05:00

My future is so bright, I need shades!

2008-04-05T08:10:00.000-05:00

We watched the Oprah show on puppy mills last night - - did you?

The show was hard to watch and every pup reminded me of Maggie. Seeing the filthy conditions brought back memories of how bad Maggie smelled when we first got her. Because she was spayed the day before we adopted her we couldn't bathe Maggie for over a week. We jokingly referred to her as "Stinky Magee" at the time, but it went beyond that. After touching Maggie you had to wash your hands because they would be covered in her stinky-goo. I had to use warm towels and a comb to get the caked on "crud" off her legs (I'll let you define "crud" in your own head).

There was a moment in the show when the rescue group attempted to walk a lab on leash, but he doesn't move - - because he's never been outside his cage and doesn't know how to walk on another surface. That's when I lost it. That was Maggie two months ago.

In the blog we've focused a lot on Maggie's milestones, but the truth is that Maggie is still learning how to be a dog. She doesn't know how to play with toys. She never gets up and just walks around the house. If the door bell rings she gets anxious, not excited. She still struggles with doorways. Nightmares are still common. We've never heard her bark. Maggie's puppy mill days still haunt her.

Pet stores are like any other business - - where there's demand they'll create supply. PLEASE DON'T PURCHASE YOUR PET FROM A PET STORE. The experts on Oprah's show estimated that 99% of pets in stores are from mills.

If you're considering a pet check out Animal Education & Rescue (http://www.aear.org/). You can find Maggie under their adoptions page :-)

As of today Maggie has been with us for two months. To celebrate she's going to root for the Jayhawks in the Final Four!

2008-04-02T19:35:00.000-05:00

As you all know, our sweet Maggie was rescued from a puppy mill where she was forced to breed multiple litters. It pains our hearts when we think about what her life was like before we adopted her. Unfortunately, Maggie is not an isolated case.

Oprah is exposing the horrid underworld of puppy mills on her show this Friday. More information is below.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Chicago, IL (CNS) - Talk show legend Oprah Winfrey said she will dedicate her Friday show to her cocker spaniel, Sophie, who died last month from kidney failure. The show is about the abuse and horror of puppy mills. Although Sophie was not adopted from a puppy mill, Oprah said in the future she will adopt a dog from a shelter.

Harpo Productions released a statement Tuesday about the up-coming puppy mill show. "Sophie gave me 13 years of unconditional love. She was a true love in my life," Oprah said.

Then she added that the show is "for anybody anywhere who loves a dog, has ever loved a dog, or just cares about their basic right to humane treatment."

The show will feature special correspondent Lisa Ling investigating the puppy mills. Ling calls the investigation "horrific" and "haunting."

Oprah's cocker spaniel was not a product of a puppy mill, and her three current dogs were all adopted from breeders, but Oprah has a new feeling about where she will get her next dog. "I would never, ever adopt another pet now without going to a shelter to do it. I am a changed woman after seeing this show," she said.

2008-03-31T21:47:00.000-05:00

Maggie has a new bed!

We've finally found a bed Maggie likes - - the "Plush Sleep-ezz". Oh geez!

To ease her into this bed we put her towels on top, but the minute she stepped on it she knew something was different. She hasn't woken up since ;-)

While she's been enjoying her new bed (ie, sleeping) we quickly ordered two more beds (one for our bedroom, and one for Michigan). We're glad to have this task accomplished.

Maggie's doing great. Her skin and coat are much healthier thanks to her diet and supplements. Her coat has become shiny.

Steve has been clear from the beginning - - no doggy clothes. BUT, he didn't say that she couldn't have seasonal collars and leashes, so . . . ;-) Maggie's currently wearing her spring "Groovy Girl Collar and Leash" http://www.walkewoo.com/item.asp?ItemID=45 Steve thinks it's too pink. I think it looks adorable! Her fall apparel - a Chicago Bears collar and leash - has already been purchased. We're even.

Maggie met some of her cousins this past week (Jordan, Katie, Rachel, and Nick). They gave the newest member of our family a warm welcome and the word "cute" was used a lot during the visit. Maggie was on her best behavior and entertained her cousins by getting up to go outside and "get busy". . . and she did it with four pairs of eyes watching thru the blinds. Good girl!

Well, it's time to wake up Maggie for her last turn-out so we can get to sleep.

2008-03-22T09:02:00.000-05:00

Well, it's March 22nd and we have like 6-8" of snow in the yard again. We're tired of it, but Maggie loves it. Last night she was probably the most playful yet, running around the yard. She even wagged her tail a few times - I'm sure by accident. She still likes to play it cool with her parents.

Here's a pic of Maggie and one of the bones we got her last week. We're giving them to her in short stints, since it upset her stomach last weekend, but she really loves them and it keeps her occupied with something.

After she finishes a tasty treat, Maggie likes to lick her paws and do her own hair. She's done this a few times but we've never had the camera handy to capture it. Last night we finally got a shot of the Maggie-do. Basically she gets drunk off of the bone and thinks this is a good look.

Of course 99% of the time Maggie likes to catch some Z's. As she becomes more comfortable with us and the house she's really sprawling out...

Last Sunday we took her to the school yard again, and this time let her off of her leash briefly to see what she'd do. There was one other dog there, a friendly Mastiff playing ball. Maggie wasn't too in to the ball or the Mastiff. She wasn't really scared, but just disinterested. She had a little fun with us though. We walked and ran around the park, and she stuck right next to us all of the time. People who see her with us comment on how well trained she is - if they only knew she just came this way!

She's gotten really good with knowing when it's her time to go out, she gets up for the door. And if we're just going in or out for something, she knows it's not for her and doesn't rush the door. She's also gotten good at knowing when to go upstairs for bed. She's a very smart dog. Today we're going to teach her Sudoku.

2008-03-16T09:21:00.000-05:00

Well, it's official - Maggie now knows "Get busy!" means to get up and head for the door. Three times yesterday she did this, so it wasn't a one-time fluke. She still doesn't get it when she's upstairs, but eliminating just one place where we had to stand her up and pick her up is great. Actually, I think when she's upstairs she knows what we want - but she's really not a morning dog so she just doesn't want to move. I can't blame her.

Possibly even more amazing than her standing up, was that she wanted to play in the yard. Maggie has played in the yard by herself before, when we had a bunch of snow. At that time I tried to play with her then by running around the yard. It didn't go well. She put her ears back, tail down, looked at me like I was insane and ran to the door.

Yesterday, she ran up to me with her front paws down, butt in the air and ears up - lunging, jumping, running around. I thought I'd go with it and we've discovered a new game. Maggie now loves to play tag in the yard. The game is this - Maggie wants to get up on the deck, and I chase her around as she tries to get around me to the deck. She's pretty fast when she wants to be. Once she gets up there, she comes back down to the yard for another round.

This is a HUGE step for her to play with us. What a difference a day makes! We can't wait to see what surprises she springs on us today.

2008-03-15T13:11:00.001-05:00

Speaking of things changing quickly with Maggie - today was the first day she got up on her own from her spot to go outside! Frankly, she surprised the crap out of me when I unlocked the door and then she was standing there next to me. Let's hope this is a new pattern and not just a fluke.

Maggie was great at her nail trip. We no longer here her claws on the ground, so we've made some progress in shortening them. On the way there, she really seemed to enjoy the car ride. I didn't think to bring our regular camera, but I was able to snap these with my phone.

We got her some raw bones at the pet store today too. I think we found Mag's new favorite treat. Her mom was a little grossed about by the raw meat, but she'll get used to it. I think Maggie won her over when the bone slipped off of her towel onto the floor - Maggie quickly grabbed it and put it back on her towel and made sure it didn't hit the floor again. The bones are great though, since she still doesn't play with anything, it gives her something to do.

2008-03-15T09:00:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since we've posted some photos. Here are a couple Kat took a few days ago. The snow is almost gone now, so Maggie is getting a feel for an actual yard instead of just a pathway.

Maggie is still great on the leash and we've been going for some longer walks now that it's above freezing. Several people have stopped us to mention how adorable her "prance" is. Miss Maggie is very prim and proper while out for a walk, and likes to avoid getting her paws dirty at all costs - something that makes her mom very proud!

She's learning so quickly, it's hard for us to keep up on her latest progress - we've learned we have to exchange notes often on the latest hurdle she's overcome. She still won't come into the house on her own, but now once she's in we can point either to her spot on this level or point toward the stairs and she'll go to the right place. Sure beats carrying her around everywhere!

Today we're going for another paw-dicure to keep up our progress in taming the claws.

2008-03-11T21:40:00.000-05:00

Stairs = DONE!

Maggie has mastered going down the stairs. Steve and I are so proud of her. Our backs thank her.

We conquered this challenge by putting Maggie down a few steps from the bottom and gradually worked our way up to the top. Now she's a pro.

We'll continue to work on "UP" and doorways.

2008-03-08T09:58:00.000-06:00

ONE MONTH AND COUNTING!!!!

Just one month ago today we adopted Maggie. Our lives have changed a lot in a short period of time - - all for the better. Last Saturday Steve and I went out to a nice three hour dinner. When it was over we realized we had spent 2 hours and 50 minutes talking about Maggie. The other ten minutes were dedicated to politics. Can you say "Yuppy Puppy Parents"?

When we researched rescue dogs we knew some of the challenges we may face - - resistance to potty training, aggressive behavior, destructive behavior, etc.

Maggie's biggest challenges are doorways, getting up, and stairs (she's made big progress on the house stairs this week!). We could put a pizza on the coffee table and leave the house without her even getting up to take a peek or a sniff. Maggie was potty trained in a day. When we go to bed at night I leave my slippers on the floor between our bed and hers and she's never even glanced at them. We love to spoil Maggie, but in the end she has spoiled us. She has made the transition to doggy-parenthood very, very easy for us.

Inside the house Maggie has a "comfort spot" on each level that she won't move from unless we physically pick her up. Our basement remodel was completed this week so we took her down there to explore. She kept looking at us like, "Where did this come from?" On her second visit to the basement she found her "comfort spot" - - right in the middle of the sectional looking at us (Maggie doesn't like anyone to be behind her). Adorable!

In time we hope that Maggie will feel comfortable enough to get up and explore the house on her own. We long for the day we come home to a wagging tail. Maybe one day she'll come up to us to be petted. But, we have to remember that it's only been 30 days and given how good she is we don't have the right to ask for anything more.

2008-03-04T18:56:00.000-06:00

We think everything Maggie does is adorable, and as each of you meet her we know you'll think the same - - or we'll cease all ties with you ;-) No, seriously.

In this blog I thought I'd share some Maggie-isms . . .

- Maggie likes to nap with one ear in her water bowl. It weirds us out, but considering the conditions she came from it's probably a step up for her. It's pretty funny when she wakes up in a sleepy-haze with one ear soaking wet.

- Maggie doesn't like the mean dog that is often tied up outside of Starbucks. Steve and I don't like the owners of the mean dog that is often tied up outside of Starbucks.

- In general, Maggie doesn't like ill-behaved dogs. She's watches "The Dog Whisperer" with a disgusted look on her face.

- Everywhere we go someone wants to correct us about Maggie's breed. She's a Labradoodle. She's not a Wolfhound (people - they're like 10 feet tall). She's not part Terrier. She's not XYZ. The Labs and the Poodles were also rescued from the puppy mill (our friends adopted the Labs). It doesn't really matter what she is, she's adorable in our book.

- Maggie's not a morning dog. She prefers the weekend when she can sleep in. We find ourselves laying in bed on Saturday and Sunday mornings waiting for Maggie to wake up. Since she's a light sleeper we've developed hand signals to communicate things like, "Don't breathe so loud or you'll wake her up!"

- She clearly likes yoga and is the queen of Downward-Facing-Dog.

- Maggie likes to be brushed, but does not like to have the "sleep" under her eye removed.

- Maggie is her cutest when she brushes her own hair with her front paws. It looks like she stuck her tail in an outlet.

- Maggie loves her sleep. Maybe a little too much (and for those of you who know how much I love to sleep you know that is a bold statement from me). Yesterday she nodded off while eating her breakfast and her head landed in her bowl. We're not sure how much she sleeps during the night (her clock may be reversed). She didn't sleep much when we first adopted her, but now she really stretches out and sleeps - - a lot.

2008-03-01T18:14:00.000-06:00

MY tail is between MY legs.

Just two days ago I called my sweet Maggie a faker and a diva. I take it back. Maggie has mastered the deck stairs (all five of them!). Up and down, up and down, up and down. It's exhausting to watch. She's on her own agenda when it comes to the stairs - - she won't go down or come up when we ask (and we ask VERY politely). It's another sign of progress and it gives us hope that one day she'll walk down the steps in the house. Our backs hope that day is soon.

Today was a fun day for Maggie. After her breakfast we went to Kriser's to get her nails trimmed (Jacqueline did a wonderful job!), and to pick out some more treats. Maggie was a big hit with the staff and other customers at Kriser's. We literally had to fend off one woman who kept asking how she could adopt Maggie. Exhausted by her fan-base, Maggie needed a nap before a walk to Blockbuster to return "Gone Baby Gone". Maggie gives this movie TWO PAWS UP. After her walk Maggie needed another nap. She just finished her dinner and she's already taking another nap. Maggie has a tough life - - Breakfast, a nap, a pedicure, some shopping, another nap, a light work-out, a nap, dinner, a nap. Raise your hand if you want to be Maggie in your next life ;-)

Tonight we're going out to dinner and will be leaving Maggie in the family room / kitchen area to see how she does. If you're putting money down in Vegas the safe bet is that she never gets off her bed the entire time we're gone. If anything else happens you can count on us mentioning it in the blog.

So, today is my 35th birthday. Today also marks three weeks since we adopted Maggie. I am really looking forward to this year and to watching Maggie come out of her shell. Just her being here has made this day special for me. She is truly a gift.

As many of you know I check my horoscope every year on my birthday. Here's what it says:

Today's Birthday (March 1). Your successes this year lead you to make new friends. You'll be running with a more experienced crowd. You're coming up with brilliant ideas, and they're interested.

2008-02-28T20:34:00.000-06:00

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??

2008-02-26T20:42:00.000-06:00

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.

2008-02-24T13:19:00.000-06:00

"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!

2008-02-23T12:01:00.000-06:00

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.

2008-02-21T19:43:00.000-06:00

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!

2008-02-19T20:17:00.000-06:00

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.

2008-02-17T16:50:00.000-06:00

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.

2008-02-15T19:29:00.000-06:00

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

2008-02-13T19:28:00.001-06:00

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.

2008-02-13T17:51:00.001-06:00

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.

2008-02-13T16:29:00.000-06:00

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.

2008-02-13T07:54:00.000-06:00

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

2008-02-12T21:37:00.000-06:00

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

2008-02-12T21:25:00.000-06:00

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

2008-02-12T20:50:00.000-06:00

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!

2008-02-12T19:56:00.000-06:00

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.