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.