This past weekend I decided to invite my parents dog over to stay at our house. One part of the invite was “fat camp” for the dog who is, frankly, a tank. My Dad gets defensive about Maggie’s weight and says it’s mostly muscle. My brothers, Mack, and I on the other hand like to call her ‘The Twinkie’ since she honestly looks like one.
clearly I know a thing or two about fat animals…
The other part? Mack has been out of town for the past two weeks and it’s been kind of lonely around the house. Yes, I’m actually leaving the house now that I have a job (be still my beating heart!) but it’s kind of depressing to come home to just cats who half the time can’t be bothered to wake up when I come home. I thought it would be nice to have a canine companion to hang out with this weekend and go on long walks and, you know, at least hide the fact as they only think of me as the provider of food.
Now Maggie is a… special dog. I don’t know how else to put it. A few months before I moved down to Phoenix our family dog Sierra (who I briefly talked about when Midnight had to be put down) had to put down too. Naturally we were all devastated by the loss of our dog and I made it my goal before I moved to find my parents another dog. Not to replace Sierra but rather to give another dog a chance of a happy, loving home.
Enter Maggie.
This dog has all sorts of weird personality quirks. I don’t know how much of them are from her background before she came into our lives but seriously you have to wonder about this dog and what goes on in her head. Take, for example, if she’s in a car she likes to bark at every. single. fucking. car. that goes by. It was cute for the first 5 minutes until you realize I live about an hour away from my parents.
Communicating with the shadow people is a favorite pastime of Maggie…
Some other weird personality quirks? She has a strange fascination with shadows and shiny objects. If your silverware accidentally catches the light when you’re eating and reflects onto the ceiling be prepared for the barking and whining and dear God really dog?! My family has kind of made it into a big joke that the Mother Ship is trying to contact her and send messages.
Mark and I try to help where we can.
Overall having Maggie over was an experience that someday, when I’m recovered and not home alone, I hope to relive. When the cats weren’t panicking (or peeing in shoe boxes since the litter-box was near THE DOG!) and Maggie wasn’t barking at shadows and/or terrorizing my neurotic cats it was a lot of fun. I hope, in time, to have Maggie come down more often (and her barking in the car to minimize) so that we can take long walks where I don’t fear her keeling over.
Oh Maggie, you tank of a dog. Don’t look now but I think the mother ship is calling.
