There is a dog in my bed!

Don’t get the wrong idea. I’m talking about a real dog. She is seventy-six pounds of canine energy that has completely changed life around the old homestead. John got married. Jeff moved out. For a while, we were empty nesters. While Jeff was out of the house, he got Maggie. . Jeff came back. Maggie is somewhat Labrador Retriever and somewhat something else. She was so small and cute and adorable when we first saw her. By the time Jeff moved back home she wasn’t so small, but still cute and adorable. She has chewed up a couple couch pillows when she got bored, but by and large she has been a good dog.

When I met Fran, she was afraid of dogs, especially large dogs. During the first twenty years of our marriage, nothing changed. Then she met a little white dog named Sandy. For some reason, they developed a connection that continues today. Maggie was at least as big as Sandy when she and Fran met. By the time Jeff moved back in, Maggie was becoming a big dog. Jeff moved back home in March and it was too cold for Maggie to live outside in the house Jeff built for her. The weather warmed up, and so did Fran’s heart. During the summer it was too hot for Maggie to live outside. She is now a seventy-six pound lap dog. Maggie is most content when she is within your reach. If you are sitting on the couch, she is likely to jump up in the seat beside you so that you can pet her. Maggie eventually learned to jump up on the bed and she now thinks it is her bed.

Maggie is much calmer now than she was when she first came to live with us. There are times when I think she actually understands us when we talk to her. I know she likes us. She tries to lick us to death.

Some day Jeff and Maggie will move out again. We sure will miss them.