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Our life with Maggie |
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To see Maggie's NEW pages, click here! |
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When our last dog, Molly, an Irish setter, died in 1998 at the ripe old age of 15, we said "No more dogs. We want to travel." Well, that lasted about 2 years. For Christmas 2000, Keith gave Tami the book "101 Uses for a Golden Retriever," and that's when we started thinking about having dogs again.
We became foster parents for Golden Retriever Resecue, Education, and Training (GRREAT), an organization that rescues goldens who are no longer wanted by their families, who are found as strays, or who are in shelters. Our first (and so far only) foster dog was Maggie, who came into our lives on April 9, 2001.
We got the call that GRREAT had a 3-year-old spayed female who was dog aggressive, and could we take her, since we didn't have any other dogs. Of course we said yes. We picked her up from the vet clinic in Purceville, VA, about an hour away. Maggie was a big tub of lard. We didn't weigh her at the clinic, but we know she weighed over 90 pounds. We could tell on the ride home that she wasn't used to riding in cars (or trucks), as she kept trying to sit in our laps! Not a pleasant experience when the dog weighs 90+ pounds!
It took two months of working with Maggie with lots and lots of treats as a reward/distraction before Maggie made her first friend. His name is Beau, and he is a Gordon Setter. Maggie and Tami were playing in the soccer fields when this huge dog came running up to us. Maggie let him sniff her, and then decided she wanted to play "tag." They've been friends ever since, and Maggie has made friends with quite a few other dogs in the neighborhood.
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Maggie loves to chase squirrels (and birds--especially crows) and cats, and generally, anything else that runs away from her. Here she is checking out the Bradford pear tree in our front yard to see if any squirrels are hiding in it, just waiting for her to find them. |
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This has become Maggie's favorite toy--her soccer ball "woobie." There's a tiny egg-shaped recorder inside the ball that we can record our own messages on. When the ball is bumped, the recorded message plays. Right now, the message is, "Maggie, go get it!" To see Maggie's newest favorite woobie, click HERE |
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Isn't she pretty? Maggie is wearing her new patriotic bandana. November 2001. |
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What the heck is a woobie? For more information, click here.
And be sure to read "The Legend of the Evil Woobie" here. |
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Helping us celebrate New Year's Eve, 2001. (Notice the woobie inside the door.) |
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Snow! |
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We got our first snowfall of the season on Saturday, January 19, 2002, and we couldn't wait to let Maggie play in it. Here she is in the soccer fields learning to catch a snowball... |
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And here she is catching one. |
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The next day (Sunday) we took Maggie for a walk to the battlefields in Manassas,which aren't far from where we live. Maggie loved walking in the cold and the snow (even if it really wasn't that cold). The snow didn't last long; by Wednesday, it was mostly all gone. |
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Next
Virginia Beach
Cape Henry
A Life of Ease
Maggie's Birthday
Pennsylvania
CR-V |
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This site last modified on:
May 3, 2002
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E-mail |
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