Maggie Moo

I grew up with a dog in the house (Holly the German Schnauzer) and Pierce had a cat (Ginger.) I had a pet rabbit when I was a young adult...she even made it into our wedding photos! Yet neither one of us had a desire to have a cat or dog as adults. It didn't help that he's allergic to dogs and I'm allergic to cats. We gave the rabbit to a good home soon after Kayla was born.

Kayla loves animals and has had fish, hermit crabs and hamsters for as long as I can remember. It was almost sad that she didn't have a "real" pet to care for. Colin was very uncomfortable around dogs and had a pretty severe allergy to dogs as well.

The previous owners of our house had an "open door" policy with one neighbor's dog and we had to re-train the dog that we couldn't let it roam our house due to Colin's fear and our allergies.

And then came Maggie...

I remember the day I drove into our driveway and our other neighbor was in our side yard. There was this tiny black furry "thing" in the grass and the rest is history...

She wanted this dog, a sweet little Yorkshire Terrier, but was going to need some help caring for it because of her work schedule. I turned to Colin and told him to go get Kayla.

Kayla came out, met the puppy and immediately agreed to help raise it. And so Maggie came into our lives. At first we'd go to her house to let her out and to play with her. Gradually she'd come over for little visits. Now, she's here so much people thinks she's actually OUR dog!

Maggie is our "part-time" dog. She's the best of both worlds for us...she toggles between her house & ours like they're both her own. She spends the night with us when her owner is out of town, cuddles with us, celebrates holidays & special occasions with us, and has even adjusted to the arrival of Kayla's pet hedgehog. But she's still her owner's dog and gets very excited whenever she comes home from work no matter how long she's been away.

It's like having a niece, nephew or grandchild...all of the fun, none of the expense ;-).

And now I can't imagine a house without a dog! We miss her when she's not here, especially after she's been around for a few days. And she is so much a part of our lives we couldn't imagine getting a dog of our own and turning her life upside down like that so we'll enjoy her as long as she's around.