Maggies Walk

Maggie has always been a walker. Never one to be content with simply going outside to potty, she has always wanted to walk the entire property on which her parents home sits. It’s hills, it’s crevices—all of it. Her sister Stella (who passed last year) was barely mobile, so we would have to wait until Stella was snugged up in her little dog bed before embarking on one of our “special-just-for-Maggie” hour-long forays around the property.

I felt bad for Stella always staying behind. I wanted her to have fun experiencing tantalizing smells and seeing new things, too. There was a doggie stroller in the garage, but I’d never used one before and was kind of intimidated by it…

Yet always one to try to find ways to engage pets in my care, I soon overcame my fear of the doggie stroller and began exploring with both of the girls up and down the looong, steep hills of their gated neighborhood. Stella in tow in the stroller and Maggie by our side on leash.
They both loved it, and one hour-walks became even longer.

As of a few months ago, Maggie has a new baby sister, Lily. And now it is Maggie who’s mobility has begun to wane.
Or so one might think.
Not today, I discovered.

I arrived around 11am to a Maggie and her human papa who were just finishing her morning potty, “She’s done #1 and #2 so she’s pretty much set until dinnertime. She’ll probably sleep all day and you can watch tv until then.” (Lily was going with their parents)

Often pet parents who are able to spend lots of time with their pets hire me because they worry their babies will be anxious when they’re gone for days—or hours— (or sometimes some of them offer maybe it’s they the pet parents who are actually the ones who will be anxious)(We’re not sure if it’s the former or the latter in Maggie’s case).
Either way, I’m delighted to have hours on end to be with my pet clients. And unless they need to sleep for health reasons or they need a nap to rest up after we’ve done some thoroughly satisfying play, Maggie sleeping all day and me watching tv was not what I had in mind until dinnertime.

Which is how we found ourselves wandering down a long, steep, winding, mountain path—Maggie in the lead pulling us further and further along.
Her dad had also informed me earlier that morning, “She’s not really going for long walks anymore. Maybe to the bottom of the drive to the mailbox. She’s been having some trouble going up the steps, too.”
Man did I wish I had video clips of her jumpin’ over fallen logs like they were nothing!

I did think to turn the camera on for some clips after Maggie started excitedly clambering to get out of the doggie stroller once we’d turned off the main neighborhood road. That gravel and moss path into the woods looked so enticing ! (I really like to explore and I love to explore with pups!)

She was leashed (safety first), out of the stroller, and on her way!
We bounded around fallen trees, darted through branches lying on the ground, nimbly jumped over little ditches.
This “old lady” was off and running! Was she content simply to get to the bottom of our mountain view, jewel colored pond festooned path? No, I tell you! Much like her own property, Maggie was intent to explore it all.
And explore it we did. With me capturing clips of video every so often (watch our made-at-home-movie below)

I did opt to carry her for parts of the way back up (I do want to protect those aging joints, even though I also think new and exciting activity is fantastic for mind and body health at any age—and helps to prolong life), however she mostly made it back up on her own!

I made sure she was “resting” in the stroller once we finished our adventure trail—if nothing other to insist that her joints have a rest.
I had to latch the stroller roof! This lady was unstoppable, even after all that she wanted to get out of her stroller and decide our course on her own four feet!

So once we got to the bottom of her driveway, I let her.
And she lead us straight uphill to the door. Went over to her dog bed. And laid down to go to sleep.

Remember her dad saying she’d likely only make it to the mailbox?

I’ve often had pet parents tell me prior to me getting to spend extended time with their pet children— especially of aging and older, or sometimes simply more reserved pets— “they’re not likely to do x, they only do y”

Maggie, I am tickled to say, you are yet another exception to this rule.