For my birthday nearly 6 years ago, my husband got me a puppy! She was an adorable, fluffy white 6 pound goldendoodle. For those of you that aren't familiar with what a goldendoodle is - that is a cross between a golden retriever and a poodle. They have the warm, loyal temperament of a golden retriever without the shedding and the smarts of a poodle without the arrogance. Nice! They are great dogs. We named ours "Daisy". She grew to be about 35 - 40 lbs. and about 18 - 19" at her shoulder. The absolute perfect size dog. She is nible and fairly compliant and a bit of a princess. She is gentle with her toys, never shreds them, just gently holds them in her mouth or cradles them with her paws. She slept on my shoes, but never once chewed any. She was house trained in 2 days. She would ring a little bell hung on the door knob to let us know she had to go out. An absolute delight.
We liked Daisy so much we decided maybe we needed another one. After all, Daisy shouldn't be alone, she needs a playmate, we surmised. So we called the goldendoodle lady and asked for another one from the next litter. My husband hand picked the new puppy. In the pictures the puppy was staring straight in the camera looking confident, self assured and also looked to have lots of personality. The goldendoodle lady tried to talk us out of this puppy, knowing what we were looking for in a dog when we had asked for Daisy. But did we listen? Noooooooooooo! She told us, "this dog is --- BUSY!!" Hmmmm?? That should have been a clue. But we did it anyway.
So, the homecoming day arrives and we go to the airport to pick up our new little puppy. We can hear an awful lot of dog noise in the back room and then a very large crate comes out on the conveyor belt. Oh ho - we say - laughing to ourselves - someone's getting a BIG Noisy puppy. The lady behind the counter looks at the shipping tag and calls out the owners name. WHAAAT??? you guessed it, that BIG noisy puppy was ours. She was 12 lbs. - twice the size of what Daisy was when we got her and the new puppy was 1 week younger than Daisy was when we got Daisy. We think we are in trouble. Little did we know....
We name the new puppy Maggie. That is short for Magnolia. We like flower names. Maggie grows and grows and grows. She has a hard time understanding what 'outside' means. She mutilates all of Daisy's treasured toys as well as her own. In the meantime, she grows and grows some more. By the time she is done growing, Maggie is about 80 pounds and 30" tall at the shoulder. She is a BIG girl!! and the goldendoodle lady was right, Maggie is BUSY!!
But, she is full of personality just like we saw in the photograph. Maggie keeps us in stitches. We often wonder if she is really. really smart or a total nincompoop! One night she came to me and let me know she had to go out so I got up and opened the door. She charged out the door and stood stock still in the middle of the yard for a moment then turned right around and galloped back to the door. I looked at her and said, "I thought you had to pee?" She looked up and stared me right in the eye for a moment then just as suddenly as she came back, she turned around, ran out to the grass, peed, and then came galloping back to the door. It was as if a light bulb went off in her head - if she were human she might have said - "Oh, that's what I was doing! I forgot!"
As I said, Daisy is a bit of a princess. She has taken to preferring to eat her dinner in the TV room. Maggie waits patiently for her dinner and then scarfs it down practically before I can get back to the counter to put the food away.
One hot summer day, both of the dogs were in the yard. As I looked out the patio door, I could see Daisy relaxing in the shade. Right beside her was Maggie with her head stuck in a black plastic flower pot. Daisy looks up at me and I can see the words in her look - "My sister is such an idiot!"
We have a school yard behind our house and once in a while a soccer ball or basketball will come over the fence. If I see it I send it back over. If I don't see it - well it's a gonner. Before Maggie came to live with us, Daisy and I used to play soccer. I would kick the ball and Daisy would jump up, stop it and kind of bounce it back to me off her nose. Lots of fun. Maggie on the other hand does not play and share well with others. Once she gets a ball, it's hers! And if she sees another one on the ground that you might get, she gets that one, too! One day, obviously I didn't see the ball come over the fence. I had been working in the front yard for a while. When I went in the house, there was Maggie standing in the dining room with her head stuck in the hole she had made in the soccer ball.
On Maggie's behalf, I will say, she is much quicker to obey than her sister Daisy. Maggie will even come and tattle on Daisy when Daisy is in the yard barking. If we call the dogs in, if Daisy doesn't come right away, Maggie first comes to answer the call and then runs to get Daisy and gives her a little nip to say - "Hey, get a move on, we been called."
Around 10:00 p.m. every night, Daisy all of a sudden disappears. She has gone to bed. She stretches out on our bed and gets comfy. Maggie on the other hand hangs out with us. But if we are not heading to bed by about midnight, she comes to my side and gently places her paw on my knee - "Mom", she is saying, "it's bedtime! I'm tired!" Maggie waits to go to bed until we do.
When I get home each day, whether I have been gone 5 hours or 5 minutes, Maggie brings me a welcome home gift. Visitors to our home are greeted with a gift from Maggie as well. Usually it is a kitchen towel. But if she can't reach a towel, she might bring you the kitchen rug! The other day, the towels and the rugs were in the wash, so when I got home she brought me the only thing she could find - a reusable grocery bag. It's the thought that counts, right?
Anyway, since all our kids are out of the house, these dogs sure give us a great deal of joy and laughter. Goofy as they are, I can't imagine our house without them. Gotta love em!
Daisy
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