Goodbye to My Best Girl

Maggie

C-Myste Sweet Dreams CDX RAE AJP MXP

June 23, 1999 - July 26, 2013

Today we had to say goodbye to Maggie.  

She was the first dog that was mine alone, my first Cardigan Welsh Corgi, and my first performance dog.  

Maggie was with me when I was single, then married, then a mother.  She and I lived together in 4 different states, 3 different time zones, and through many transitions. 

She was gorgeous, funny, smart, and picky about who she loved.

Maggie taught me the joy of training dogs, taught The Small Human how to sleep through barking, and taught Ziggy how to retrieve a dumbbell.

Her greatest joys in life were rolling (preferably in stink), working (preferably for food), and barking with happiness.

We all miss our Best Girl.  Rest in peace.

Happy (one-week-late) 14th Birthday, Maggie!

Lookin' good for 14 years old!

Last Sunday Maggie turned 14 years old.  We didn't have any sort of celebration for our girl, but I am saving her favorite treat - a "bullwinkie" for her.  I just need to find a time to give it to her when Rip is on a walk - to avoid Rip's frustrated barks.

Physically, Maggie is doing very well.  She sleeps a lot, but remains in pretty good shape, and doesn't seem to be in pain.  She even romps down the hall in the morning when she wakes up.

Mentally, she is definitely an old lady, and her mind is going a bit.  Some days are good.  Some days not -- she seems disconnected from the world.  We have started crating her at night -- otherwise she'll get up around 4:30-5am and just wander around the house - back and forth in the kitchen or our bedroom.  Sometimes she greets me with a wag at door when I return from work; sometimes she just wanders over as the boys run to meet me and stares at me like "hmm - there's a person."  The content and "with it" times currently outnumber the disconnected times and she isn't in pain.  We're happy to have our old lady dog still with us.

The old lady dog

In the past six months, Maggie has made the move from "senior" to "old lady."  I haven't posted about her in a while, so I thought I'd share an update.

The old lady likes to snuggle with Ziggy.

Maggie is now 13.5 years old, and in pretty darn good shape.  Some things to know about the old lady dog:

She is DEAF.  
Maggie can no longer hear.  Well, she can't hear anything except for Rip's piercing "I want something" barks.  I can't imagine that's any fun - woken up from a quiet nap by a piercing bark from a petulant pup.

Deafness means that she can't hear the "come on in" yell that brings the dogs in from the yard.  If she looks my way, I can flag her in using a hand signal (I am very thankful for her Utility training - hand signals are invaluable now).  If she doesn't look my way she'll stay out in the yard for a long time.  Now that it's cold out we sometimes have to go out, tap her, and flag her in.

What is she doing out in the  yard so long?  Sniffing!

Yes, we indulge the sniffing.

She SNIFFS a lot.
Maggie's nose seems to be supercharged.  Maybe she's trying to make up for the deafness, but Maggie's sniffing has ratcheted up tremendously.  She sniffs around the yard.  Walks are now really sniff-tastic adventure strolls.  A walk around the block can take as much time as we allow.  And the worst part about the sniffing?

She has become a TRIP HAZARD.
Maggie's infernal sniffing carries over into the house.  When she's not asleep, she can normally be found sniffing around the kitchen.  Crumbs might fall.  Humans in the kitchen must watch out or the old lady may trip them.

She still PLAYS a bit, though.
In the mornings Maggie will run down the hall and do some very mild frapping with Rip.  She also gets excited when Rip and I are doing obedience work, too.  So I often indulge her in a few dumbbell retrieves (no fronts required!) - she still loves to work!

2 dogs reporting for work.

We are really pleased, though, that Maggie is happy and healthy.  She is a dear old lady.

Happy 13th Birthday, Maggie (sorry I'm a little late)!

On Saturday my Best Girl, Maggie turned 13.  Even though I'm a bit late on the post, I think every birthday after 10 deserves special recognition!

Here's the Birthday Girl!

I think her grey hairs make her look wise and distnguished!

Maggie continues to be in good health and good spirits.

She still LOVES to:

• Bark at the neighbor's cattle dog (how DARE he stick his nose through the gap in the fence!)
• Eat vermin.  She can't catch them very well any more, but this spring she has eaten a baby squirrel she found in the yard and a chipmunk that Rip caught.  YUM!
• "Work" - whenever I train Rip upstairs, she waits on the other side of the baby gate wagging her tail and staring intently.  I usually bring her in to do some heeling, fronts & retrieves.  She still loves to work!

But she is getting older:

• She suddenly became "old" about six months ago.  It seems that overnight she went from a spry older lady to an old dog.  She wants her walks to be shorter, and she sleeps more.
• She is no longer the boss of the house.  Rip has taken over this role.  She sometimes doesn't back down, though, and I get to intervene to break up a "corg-fuffle."
• I think she might be becoming a bit deaf.  It's hard to tell, though, because she is also very much an old lady who no longer feels compelled to obey commands.  My dear girl who got scores in the mid-190's when earning her Open-level Obedience title suddenly doesn't know how to sit or come sometimes...   I'm not sure how much is hearing loss and how much is "no thanks!"

I am just happy to have such a wonderful girl in my life.  Here's to many more years, My Best Girl!

A Good Christmas to Be a Cardi

We had great weather here in Iowa yesterday, so the Humans got to spend some good outdoor time with Maggie and Rip.  Unfortunately Ziggy had to stay inside - but he got to enjoy some Christmas treats.  Here are some pics form the day.

Maggie enjoyed sniffing along on our walk,

 and hung out with me in the sunshine while The Child played on the playground.

Ziggy enjoyed a rawhide candy cane.

He also got a new rope giraffe toy -

which Rip immediately tried to grab through the bars of the crate.

Rip got two outings

First, he and I went for a long, long walk.  Not many people were out so he got to be off leash in the park.  

Lots of things live in the woods.  

You can't hide, squirrels!

Rip was thirsty, so I tried to get him to come down to the stream for a drink.

He gave me the "my mom is doing strange things" look.

When the look didn't get me to climb back up, 

he tried barking his displeasure.

Note scorpion tail accompanying barking.

What's a walk on a sunny day without a good roll?

Later in the afternoon, we took The Child to the playground.  Some young men showed up with their Lab.  They said the Lab was friendly, so we let Rip off leash to play.

The Lab was a quite a bit older than Rip, so Rip had to work

hard to get it to play.  This also involved some barking

when the Lab had the audacity to stop.

But I got a good recall when the play was over!

Note tongue hanging out.

Here's what happened when we got home.

Mission accomplished!

I hope that all of you had a wonderful day, too!

Cardi fun in the Autumn leaves

This weekend was leaf clean-up for us.  I love the colors of the leaves with the colors of The Trio, so I took my camera outside to get some pics before all the leaves were gone.


To give you and idea of what a nice day it was, here are the portraits/still shots:

Rip taking a break from frapping

Maggie surveying the yard

I love how her brindle color matches the leaves

Ziggy looks cute in the leaves, too

Here he's trying to decide if he wants to pay attention to me,

or his brother causing trouble in the background

But a crisp autumn day isn't about standing still, so here are the action shots

Let's all frap!

Maggie likes to be the chaser not the chased

Here she's reprimanding Rip for biting her sides

I love Ziggy's "I'm staying out of this one" expression

Rip didn't get Maggie's point the first time

(nor the second, nor the third...)

When there's conflict, Ziggy hangs back, but still runs along

It allowed me to get some good pics of just him...

Where is this speed in agility?!?

When the other 2 got too tired to play, 

Rip grabbed a stick and got me to play with him

Happy 12th Birthday, Maggie!

I can't believe that Maggie is 12 years old!!!

I'm thankful that she's still happy, healthy, and part of our pack.

To celebrate, she gets a bull-winky (her favorite treat) this evening.

Below are some pictures to show how Maggie spent her year:

Rolling.

Still one of Maggie's FAVORITE activities.

Unfortunately now a young-in' barks at her when she rolls.

Barking.

Another of Maggie's great loves.

The Party Police especially likes to bark when the boys wrestle.

Keeps them in line, you know....

Joining in the fun on occasion.

Playing.  And still barking.

Reprimanding Rip.

Sometimes he just needs to know when play should stop.

At least play with Maggie.

Hiking.

Maggie loves to hike. 

Exercise, outdoors, REALLY stinky stuff to roll in...

Hanging out.

And looking sweet.  And somewhat expectant.

Laying on the sofa.

Where every Cardi should be.

Lounging in the yard.

More lounging in the yard.

Lounging in her favorite place in the yard.

Notice the lack of grass - due to all the lounging that happens here.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MAGGIE!

The Old Lady's Still Got It

Since it's Maggie's "birthday week,"  I'll do another post of my favorite girl.

Even though Maggie rests a lot more than she used to, the girl has still "got it."

Here's photographic proof from this weekend:

Mom threw the toy.

Who will get there first?

That's right - 

experience pays off you little whippersnapper.

But now I have the toy old lady -

I guess "protecting" it is just too much work for you, huh?

Not so fast!

A lady has the right to change her mind.

Learn your place young man!

One more throw.  

See, an old dog can still move when she needs to!

Caught on the fly!

Rip learned his lesson and didn't go after this one.  Instead....

Oh yeah, old lady, I'll tell you what I think of you having the toy!

But I don't hold a grudge.

And I know you'll leave the toy in a minute...

Starbucks Puppuccino

The Husband needed a break this morning, so I volunteered to take The Child to Starbucks with me to get the morning coffee.

As we were preparing to get in the car, The Child exclaimed, "We have to take Maggie with us!  She can have another Puppuccino!"

I eagerly agreed, as Maggie loves to go on outings, and now that she's not competing, she usually stays home while I take the boys somewhere.  And heck, now that Rip is in the house, the old lady earns every treat she can get.

Maggie's spot next to the boy in the back seat.

She's really much happier to ride in car than she looks in this picture.

We discovered the Puppuccino one day when Maggie was on errands with us.  As is her tradition when the car stops for a while, she puts her feet on the console between the two front seats.  The folks in the Starbucks drive-thru saw her and asked if she wanted a treat.  Yes indeed she did.

What self-respecting Cardi wouldn't want one of these?

Yes, a Puppuccino is a very small cup filled with whipped cream.

Yum!

It does take a little work to get ALL of the cream out.

But Maggie is up to the task.

Needless to say, Maggie enjoyed her Puppuccino.  She then enjoyed licking a dab of whipped cream off of The Child's shorts.  She did such a good job that it looked like The Child had spilled water on his shorts.  Which we all thought was very funny.

Spring is good for....

..... Lounging on a beautiful day

..... Chasing birds away!

..... Keeping vermin at bay

..... Flowers (hooray!)