It’s been 17 days since I had to say goodbye to my Maggie. My beautiful, very unique, mutt puppy that I found on the side of the road 11 years ago.
The stolen rescued puppy
I’ll never forget the day I found her – I could barely see her, she was so tiny. I stopped to pick her up and went door-to-door at a row of homes, trying to find her owner. There was an older many who answered his door and proceeded to tell me he knew where the pup came from but he urged me, that if I cared about dogs at all, I would take her with me and just go!
A few days after Maggie found me – love those blue eyes!
I didn’t want to just take a pup that belonged to someone else, but after walking around the house, the man pointed out – I concluded he was right, those people didn’t care for, or didn’t know HOW to care for a puppy – or any animal for that matter.
Concealing a very unique puppy ain’t easy
Maggie was so tiny! Barely 4 pounds. She had the most striking, ice-blue eyes I had ever seen. Obviously, she was very identifiable – that concerned me. On the drive to my house, Maggie sounded like she was having trouble breathing and there was a significant rattle coming from her chest.
There was no way I was going to take her to a vet close to where she came from, so I drove 2 counties away to a small country vet. Sure enough, Maggie was quite sick. She had a horrible respiratory infection. The vet checked her over and estimated her to be about 10 weeks old. With medicine in hand, Maggie and I headed home – to her forever home.
Maggie and Jake
Our black lab, Jake, took to her right away. They became fast friends and Jake became her teacher. She learned everything from Jake – before I knew it, I had two of the best dogs on the planet.
We lost Jake in February, 2011. He had developed a form of cancer in his eye. After trying several treatments that failed, we had decided it was time to let him go. Just after calling the vet to let them know, Jake took his last breath at home. He went the way he wanted to.
Jake and Maggie both were like little toddlers – they really understood when I would talk to them.
While it is has been so hard losing both Jake and Maggie, I have to realize what a wonderful life both of them had. And imagine what would have become of them had they not entered my life when they did.
Pet lovers have a lot of love to give
When people lose a pet, they often say they don’t want another pet – but I am not one of those. I always want to have my pets around me. I always want to spoil them and give them the best, fullest, happiest life they can possibly have – especially when it comes to mutts and strays.
It’s still very hard for me to talk about Maggie – hard for me to think about her – hard to look at her pictures. The lump in my throat, the heaviness on my chest and the tears still flow, uncontrollably. But I would not give that deep feeling of loss up for anything.
Why it hurts so bad
While reading blogs written by others who have lost their beloved pets, I thought Nicole at Ugly Green Couch summed it up best:
grief is merely love with no place to go
Pet that are deeply loved can never be replaced and they will never be forgotten. They will always hold a special place in our hearts – but how blessed are we to know and feel THAT kind of real, unconditional love, every single day? I’ve always said people could learn a lot from their pets, if they would only listen.
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