Hey Shorty, It's Your Birthday!

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