My Little Runner, Maggie Postcard

This is a scanned photo from about 1987. This is Maggie (1984 -2000). She was mostly Lab. She was off the street, found at a car wash at about 5 months. As an adult she weighed about 20 lbs. less than Moses (~70) and loved to run. When she was about 1.5 yr. she ran two miles with the son of one of my friends who ran track; she went out at a sub-5 min. pace. He had to slow her down and she came in at 11:31 for two miles. She ran about 25 miles/wk. She loved to race and was always pulling to pass people on the trail. She's about 3 in this picture. She went on to have about eight of her own stoneware dishes that she won in races, plus lots of dog food, pet insurance (which she didn't need because she was so healthy), etc. She also received mail because her name got on some computer lists. She was so popular that people would yell "Hi Maggie!" to her and then other people thought my name was Maggie. One funny story about Maggie is that after a dog race we were standing around while they gave out awards. Every time the crowd started clapping, Maggie started barking and grinning. After a few times, there was no mistake that that was her way of joining in, since she couldn't clap, and people were laughing and getting kick out of it. Maggie loved people. If they ignored her she would go up and kind of hit her nose on their leg and usually people started laughing. She was super sweet. Had not one fight in her entire life. Maggie ran from about Oct. to April when the temps were usually below 70 and walked in hot weather. She ran until she was about 10 and continued to love her walks. We got Myrtie when she was almost 12 and it worked out nicely because Myrtie was not really built for running and they both enjoyed walks. Maggie helped pick out Myrtie at PALS. We took her to PetsMart for her input. She turned her back on two puppies (one was real hyper). Then my husband picked up Myrtie and Maggie acted like she liked her. She kept coming over and looking at her and kind of nosing her. What she really enjoyed was all the kids coming in the store. She was a kid magnet. Anyhow, eventually she taught Myrtie how to guard, etc. and she let Myrtie take over while she napped. The last time Maggie walked a three mile loop was on a cold day when she was past 14. It was her idea. Myrtie was acting like "Good grief! How far is this?" Maggie was going on 16 when she passed away. Her little heart was the last thing to go, literally and figuratively. She was about 108 in human yrs. when she passed away.