Time to share a few photos of Maggie I’ve taken over the last few weeks. (You’re welcome.)
Maggie, around the house
Maggie is enjoying the return of summer. She has arthritis so she needs to be warm, and she she’s always loved soaking up the sun. I think her bones also appreciate the memory-foam dog bed we have for her our living room.
Scratching her back after napping in the sun
Fast asleep after her morning walk
Blearily noticing that I just took her photo
When she is tired but still follows you from room to room, so you pee with the door open
When we got Maggie all those years ago, we’d take her for hour-long walks every day and she’d still have an endless supply of energy afterwards.
As she got older, she’d start to get tired after forty-five minutes of walking, so we dropped her walk time down to thirty-ish minutes.
These days she still has the mental enthusiasm for half-hour walks, but if we walk for too long in one go, her body pays for it the next day. So we’re now down to fifteen-ish minute walks every morning; with maybe a five or ten minute walk in the evening if she’s up for it.
Not that she minds. She still loves walking through our neighbourhood and foraging for whatever she can eat. But she’s become a lot more chill as she’s gotten older, with fewer fucks to give about the world. And, as long as she knows where we are, she’s no longer in a mad rush to follow us from room-to-room as we move around the house. Unless it’s nearing her walk time or dinner time, of course, in which case she’ll make her presence know no matter where we are and what we’re up to! But otherwise she’s content with her slower pace of life.
Happy 10th birthday to Maggie!
When we adopted Maggie in 2016 we were told she was probably two-and-a-half to three years old. And since we needed to nominate a date of birth for her registration, we ended up picking 5 December 2013.
So, at least according to that guesstimate, our now-not-so-little Maggie is ten years old today. Happy birthday!
Here she is making the most of her middle-agedness:
Red heelers like Maggie tend to have a 12-15 year lifespan, though healthy, well cared for, non-working heelers can easily live for 18-20 years. So we have many, many years with her yet.
That said, here’s a side-by-side comparison of how much greyer her muzzle has gotten over the years. ❤️
Nadia and I have gotten greyer over the last decade too, of course, so we’re all a happily middle aged family now :)
Asleep, but alert
Maggie takes an afternoon nap in the retreat that’s between my study and Nadia’s study – where we each work from home – so she can keep an ear on both of us.
Maggie in her downstairs bed
As dogs tend to do, Maggie follows us everywhere we go in the house. Unfortunately, she also lives up to her ‘Underfoot’ middle name and is always in our way. To minimise her underfooted-ness, we’ve got a dog bed for her in pretty much every room of the house. This helps contain her a little.
Here is a series of photos of Maggie sleeping in what is probably her most comfortable bed (a memory foam bed, to help manage her early-stage arthritis).
Maggie in bed
Maggie has a comfortable, fuzzy bed in the corner of my room where she sleeps for much of the day.
Gentle snores, lethal farts
Fast asleep in her bed
Snoring gently
Snuggled up in a fuzzy bed
Asleep, but with one ear still up
A dog in the garden
Taking a sniff
Maggie in the bushes
A dog in the bushes
A snail in the weeds
Routine vet visit
Routine vet visit; routine sniff of the speciality dog food on display.
Daily routine
Step 1: Good walk.
Step 2: Good nap.
Maggie is not amused
I slept in and delayed Maggie’s daily morning walk. She was not amused.
She was even less amused after I took that first photo :P
Happy sun dog on an otherwise wintry day in Melbourne
This is the life.
Successful tooth extraction
Maggie’s tooth extraction went well, but she was on ketamine not too long ago so the poor thing is still a little out of it!
The folks at Fawkner Veterinary Hospital in Melbourne are both lovely and excellent at their jobs, by the way. 10/10 would recommend.
9.5 degrees; feels like 0.5
9.5 degrees; feels like 0.5. This is why we wear a coat.
Straining!
S T R A I N I N G !
Sleeping with both ears open
Maggie, sleeping with both ears open.
You can’t let sleeping dogs lie, you have to take their photo.
Maggie being Maggie
Maggie, majestic
Maggie, noticing
Maggie, chilling
Maggie, straining
Snuggles
Snuggled up to her blankie…
*Snuggling intensifies*
Anticipation
Maggie waits for Nadia to come up the stairs.
Sniff, sniff
One of our neighbours is having a barbecue.
Win-win
I thought this was a nice, shady spot for a 1 Jan 2023 selfie…
Evidently she thought this was a nice, grassy spot where she could scratch her back :)
Win-win!