Maggie Mae

Our beautiful Maggie Mae made more friends in her 11+ years here as she was a sensitive soul and she always found the person in the room who she’d go and lay next too sensing who was on edge and she’d stay right there until she knew they felt better. Like her predecessor (another intuitive yellow lab Bailey) Maggie Mae chose us but was a bit more subtle in doing so. Bailey had come from the back of the stall in the barn and parted the crowd of her siblings and came right up to my hand licking it. Once I picked her up I held onto her until we left with her. Maggie Mae pretended to not pay attention to us once we set her down to play in order to meet her parents. One move in particular is in a puppy picture when she sat down behind the lady’s leg and then was peering out as if to ask; well, have you made up your minds about me yet? Then she was walking underneath her dad who promptly pee’d on by her she must’ve been used to it because she just shook it off and kept playing without complaining about it at all!
Yes, Maggie Mae chose us and once we agreed she was the one we bundled her up as she slept through most of the two hour drive on my neck stretching around my shoulders and that’s where she slept ! She continued to sleep behind me or in the middle of the pillows and then she was able to reach us both and helped us all fall asleep well. She continued to sleep in our bed from her first night home and unless it was too hot and humid she slept with us until she couldn’t go upstairs any longer. Every morning my husband would look in on us before he left and she was busy snuggling into the pillows and bugging me while I pretended to scream and laugh hugging her. She became my alarm clock by kissing my ears and face until I got up. Then she would move into the warm spot among more pillows and blankets and go back to sleep! Occasionally peeking out to be sure I was getting dressed and get her some breakfast! This little girl was both funny and outrageous but quite mellow when you needed her to be and she rarely complained unless she did a little woof to say come on mom! She’d get in her running jag’s all through the house upstairs and down.
Even happier when being chased by a great grandkid or neighbor friend. She loved her long walks with her dad and shorter walks with me or just laying down outside made her so happy surveying her kingdom before her! She was so patient especially the years I had a badly broken hip after I had a couple of falls and this precious girl wouldn’t leave my side unless I told her it was ok. She helped me get back up after falling in the deep snow that she loved running around in and bounced through the piles of snow catching and eating the snowballs we rapidly tossed at her. She could get selective hearing and then depending on your tone of voice she’d turn on a dime to barrel through piles of snow bringing chunks of it inside with her. When her paws would start to freeze she would hold the first paw up so we could warm her paws in our gloves and we hobbled in together and laugh so hard while she smiles at us. Sort of like her smile in the picture of her in the groomer’s bath! That was a month and a half ago when it was taken and she was getting bigger from the lumps of tumors along with the fatty tumors and retaining fluid from a UTI  when they diagnosed her with diabetes too. But our girl had us laughing right up to her last few minutes, as she snored from the sedative it was the loudest I’d ever heard her do before! It even brought the vet back inside and we shared a bittersweet moment and that’s what our Maggie Mae, my Magpie and bestest girl was everyone’s friend and again I don’t know how we’re supposed to go on because my fluffanutter made all our days and nights better by being here.

Before we said our final goodbye and As she rested I took her paw in mine as I did each night so it was important to me that her dad and I could say our last prayer all together - to let her be free from all pain and ailments. Then prayed more if she’d be in my dreams at night as I needed to see she was ok. Then a wish for her to look out from the clouds that we used to lay in the grass and watch the shift shape together in good weather. Do you know what happened after that? I’m seeing her face in multiple views in the clouds on the days  I sit outside without her now and I listen to the birds that knew not to be afraid of her white shape and I made up silly songs out of their chirping that we loved to stay outside to see and listen to. At the end of our after praying I asked her to come back with the birds so I would feel her nearby me. Right then a beautiful song started up was by a cardinal right outside the office window as I believe he accompanied her to the playground where she is forever doing her favorite things without a care in the world, no longer sick with cancer and diabetes and infections that took her way too soon from us. Our vets were great and they gave us a surprise of her paw print when we picked up her ashes. One day I will see her with the other two pups we had but I’m pretty sure that they broke the mold when our awesome Maggie Mae was born!
Her kookiness was exceptionally kooky loving to squeeze underneath her favorite chair whenever it stormed and thunder hit she hid below. Or if it was time to put medicine in her ears that’s where she fled or upstairs on the bed!  She loved cuddling and did it the best then falling asleep while twisting her body into awkward pretzel like moves that made me laugh every time. She blessed our lives and left us truly broken hearted missing her each and every day.