Memories of Maggie the "Big Sister"

I know this video isnt the best quality, but it shows Maggie's first time as a "big sister" when we brought Jack home from the hospital. I love this video!

this picture was taken while we still lived in Nashville and Josh was commuting almost 4 hours a day back and forth from Livingston. I still can't believe he did that for almost 4 months! Maggie was great company during those months when I was home alone (not able to drive while recovering from a csection) with only a tv, phone and newborn for company. Lots of pictures from this time are of Josh and Jack sleeping together. Maggie decided to join in on this action.

Maggie trying to get the hang of having another little "critter" around and all the gear that came along with him
We were slightly worried about how Maggie would respond to being displaced as the center of our universe....and I can completely say that she was AWESOME!! TOTALLY TOTALLY AWESOME!

Just Look:

She was patient and gentle





although whenever company would come over Maggie would become slightly annoying when practically demanding their attention. Here she is basically hugging Abby's leg enjoying all the love and attention she can soak up in a short time. Thankfully she didnt mind when visitors wanted to visit with the human family members.

I LOVE this picture. We were trying to coach Jack to roll over, and who came along to show off her rolling over skills (which by the way she hadnt done in at least 3 years!) It was classic sibling rivalry at its best!

she cracked us up this day with her fascination with bubbles

I also love the chubby baby legs in the pictures too!

dont you love these suspicious looks? I wonder what they were up to!

She really did love "her boy" and I loved how gentle she was with him. She put up with a lot from him.

sometimes he invaded her space

but he put up with her "affections" really well...sometimes I wondered if she thought he was her puppy

I really dont think we could have asked for a better dog for our boys. She really did put up with a lot from them.

Watching the snow

what makes this picture funny is what you can't see...Jack is over to her left splashing and shrieking in his new kiddie pool, and she was cautiously keeping her distance.

one of Jack's recent chores was taking care of Maggie...although this picture was taken long before it was his job....it was a few years ago and he smeaked (snuck?) back to her crate and started giving her treats, lots and lots and LOTS of treats...she was one happy puppy once he was done!

This is one of the few pictures taken of Maggie after Wesley arrived on the scene. If 2nd born children have fewer pictures taken of them, then beloved Puppies are REALLY left out when the 2nd born come along...at least in our house. As much as I Joke about it, it makes me really sad because we only have one picture that I can find of Maggie and Wesley together.

does this count as a "together" picture for Wesley and Maggie? We are watching Josh and Jack playing outside in the snow.

These pictures are out of order, but still cute. Jack and Maggie are trying to "break out" of the deck.

Another example of Maggie putting up with a lot from Jack...she usually didnt mind at all letting Jack use her as a pillow. :) Such a sweet girl!

It absolutely breaks my heart that my boys dont get to grow up with such a wonderful doggie friend.  I'm not sure if we will ever find a dog who was a perfect for our family like Maggie. Like I've said before, 7 years just wasnt long enough to have her in our lives. For various reasons I think we will take some time before investing our hearts into another dog. I still miss her every day, and I'm sure Jack does too...he asks me every single day about "Where is Maggie? When is she coming back from Heaven? When she comes back from Heaven can we do ____ with her? I miss Maggie, do you miss Maggie too,  Mommie?" Sigh...at least now I can answer him at least half of the time without tearing up.

Memories of Maggie, our "first born"

we got Maggie at a shelter in Nashville just a few days after our 3rd anniversary. We had looked around a few different places, but I really wanted a puppy. I wanted a little dog who we could raise from the very beginning, the energy and the curiosity (I really didnt know what I was getting myself into did I?) We saw on the website that this shelter was getting in some jack russell mix puppies so we decided to check it out. As we got there they were just getting the intake paperwork on Maggie and her 2 or 3 siblings. I remember that where it listed breed on her paperwork it said "Mom:Jack Russell Dad:Traveling Salesman" We always wondered and guessed what dad could have been. They predicted that she would be between 15 and 25 pounds...but our darling topped out at just over 50 pounds during her chubbiest time, eventually settling at just under 40 pounds...so that traveling salesman must have been a big guy!
Like I said, they were still doing the paperwork on Maggie when we got there, and they named her "Chardonnay" and took this picture while Josh was holding her....those are his hands in the pic! We still hadnt quite decided on her yet. I remember while we were trying to decide between her and her siblings, that she seemed the most outgoing and least scared, and I also liked her tricolored coat whereas her siblings were just black and white.

We got her a crate and all the supplies from the vets office attached to the shelter. I remember being SO nervous when we brought her home that night, since I felt I would be pretty comfortable with bringing home a baby...but not so sure what to do with a baby DOG. I had never had a puppy before, just the dog my parent's had who passed away when I was 6, and a few hamsters. Josh had dogs all through childhood so I took a lot of my cues from him. I wasnt sure if it was appropriate to babytalk to our puppy, but since was being so cute and babying her so much, we fell into that pretty easily. Thank goodness we lived on a bottom floor apartment when we got her, because all those potty breaks would have gotten SO ANNOYING if we had to run down the steps with her! That first night and a few more after that were HARD! She really missed her siblings and we didnt want her to get dependent on sleeping with us (or the inevitable dribbles on our bed from a non housetrained puppy) so we stuck it out with her in the crate howling for several nights. Who knew such a little dog could be so pitiful! Hannah loaned us a ticking plastic wall clock that did the trick and she was fine after that!
We named her Maggie because I always loved that name for a future child, but for some reason Josh didn't like that name for a kid....so he caved for that name for our dog.

 We moved to our first home, a town house, less than a month after getting Maggie. She was such a sweet dog. We loved taking her for walks and buying her treats, taking her to puppy classes and going to the local dog park. She got along GREAT with the other dogs and loved running around, but if any other dog got too close to her "personal space" she would snarl and growl and bark like crazy. Other than that she was INCREDIBLY laid back!

Everynight she would want to sleep with us, and for a while we let her, pretty much until the summer I was pregnant (summer of 07, major heatwave, PLUS pregnant....not enough room in the bed for the FOUR of us that summer!) She would often try to "sneak up" to bed with us and then try to disappear into the bed with this look on her face like "you dont see me...I'm not here....I'm invisible....dont take me downstairs" it was really cute. She still loved to sleep with us and be in the same room with us at all times. I remember in our townhome if one of us was upstairs and the other downstairs, she would sit at the stairs and whine until BOTH of us came into the same room and then she would be happy.

I think it's funny that almost all of our pictures of her are her lounging and sleeping...and she was a bit of a couch potato...I guess because we can be too! While we were both working and she spent a large part of her day cooped up in her crate was when her weight got up to just over 50 pounds. The vets told us her knees would appreciate losing weight and we tried taking her for walks and putting her on "lite" food, but she didnt really lose any weight until I started staying home and she was out of her crate for most of the day...which I found really funny because she actually went for less walks once we had kids, and pretty much just slept in various places around the house instead of snoozing in her crate...but she lost almost 10 pounds that way. Wish that would work for me!

Such a diva. It never occured to her (or us really) that she didnt belong on the sofa. Bad puppy manners, I know!

Man she loved to snuggle. Josh was so good about giving her physical attention, even after the kids came.

I just love the look in her eyes in this picture. She had SUCH an expressive face. I think part of it is because of her coloring it looked like she had eyebrows which made her eyes more expressive.

this is her "I'm trying to figure you out" look

and this is her "I've got my eye on the prize" look...you cant tell, but I am cooking in this picture and she always stood nearby to get any crumbs that accidentally or occasionally on purpose would come her way. Have I mentioned how much I miss her "help" keeping the kitchen clean??? I had no idea how messy a cook and how crummy 2 little kids can be in the kitchen! My kitchen floor is a MESS!



Isn't this picture AWESOME?!?! She loved Josh SO MUCH! And yes, before kids, we would totally give up a spot on the couch for her. She would actually look at me, whine and paw at my spot until I moved over. Eventually I got stubborn while holding a baby and wouldnt give in, but she was totally spoiled for a while!



this may look ferocious, but she we just caught her mid-bark while playing some sort of catch/chase game.

see, I snuggled with her too!

another diva picture...but really didnt have a diva attitude at all!

Santa Paws!

SSSLLLUURRRPPP!

I know this may totally gross some people out, but we did let her kiss us on the mouth...that is until a day about a year ago when I witnessed something totally disgusting...you really REALLY dont want to know! No more puppy kisses for me...that it truly the moment when my beloved "furry baby" fully turned back into a DOG!

more snuggles!

She had such a great smile. Do all dogs smile like that?

her very favorite hiding place...under the dining room  table!



I always loved this look on her face. She loved being outside in the sun on a nice day. I really wanted to eventually get a fence so that she could roam around outside without being tied up, but she didnt seem to mind too much.

this is Maggie and Jack's first picture together....little did she know that her role and the center of our attention was about to change drastically...I'll do a separate post on that later.