Maggie (Oct 2010 - Feb 2011)

Some will think it strange that I’m writing about a pet that lived such a short life and is no longer with us, but Maggie was something special.   Garry and I had been talking about getting a dog once we were more settled into the house and had the lawns and fencing in order. We both thought that with a property like ours it would be a shame not to give a dog a home here.  To be honest I wasn’t too bothered, up until this point I wouldn’t have considered myself an “animal” person.  Garry had dogs most of his life so he already understood how life is enriched when you own a pet.

Maggie was found by a colleague of Garry’s on a country road west of our house and Garry decided Maggie couldn’t be taken to the pound and he must take her home.  I was home at the time and when he opened the car door and showed me Maggie I didn’t know what to think.  All the reasons why we weren’t ready to have a dog filled my mind.  No fences, we were going away for the next 2 weekends and it went on and on but it was too late.  I’ve since learnt that if I pick up a puppy and give it a pat that puppy now belongs to me, I can’t put it down.

So we made Maggie comfortable in a box under the house, left food and water and thought if Maggie is here when we get home from our weekend I guess we have a dog and if not then we were just part of Maggie’s journey to her new home.

OF COURSE she was here when we got home.  It was much more comfortable than walking along a country road on your own !!!!     As the weeks went on we fell more in love with Maggie.  She was a smart dog and part Kelpie so she loved to jump and run.   Over the next few months we built fences to keep her safe.  When she jumped over those we made them higher and higher. In the end Maggie was scaling fences taller than we could build.  We just couldn’t keep her contained.  I called her our free range dog.

Sadly the story ends pretty quickly.   Garry got a phone call about 4 months after we found Maggie to say she had been killed by a car on the road just outside our house.   Garry called me and I’d just finished work and was waiting for a bus in the city.  It was one of those heart renching moments.  I came straight up to house to be with Garry and we both had a very sad few weeks.  Maggie showed me how important animals are in our lives and I don’t think I could ever not own a pet again.  Thanks to Maggie we now have two more puppies that we saved from what could have been an unfortunate life.

Rest in peace Maggie.