Maddie

Many years ago, I sat down to start a blog.  One of the first things I thought I would do would be to write one blog post about each of my dogs.  That was back when Jake was still alive, but nearing the end of his time here with us.  As I wrote that blog post, he was lying next to me and I knew our remaining time together was limited.  I wanted to be sure to write about all of the things that made him uniquely Jake, so that I would never forget.  I remember the tears rolling down my face as I wrote.  And then I got caught up in life and didn't continue to write.  Years later, I started to write again.  I still wanted to write about each of the girls, and eventually wrote about my Imke and all that she meant to me...also with her lying next to me as I wrote, and more tears.  Over the last couple of years, I've been waiting for the perfect time to write this post, and I believe that time as finally come.  So let you me tell you about my Maddie.

Tonight as I write, this is the view that I see.  This beautiful, sweet face looking right at me, soundly sleeping and dreaming of some grand adventures, I am sure.  Because Maddie is an adventure dog and my travel buddy.  But that was not always the case.

When Maddie came into my life 10 years ago, she was not supposed to be my dog.  I will spare you the long story and all of the details, but she wasn't meant to be mine and I had no idea that she would eventually become such a big part of my life.  I didn't choose to bring her into my home at the time and I never expected for her to be here with me 10 years later.  But honestly, I don't think she ever belonged with anyone else and I think she knew that from the beginning. 

Maddie was just 4 years old, given up by her previous family-a casualty of a divorce.  The wife's dog, who ended up with the husband after the divorce, but he didn't have time for her and in her boredom, she started killing his chickens.  That was not acceptable to him and so she ended up as a "free to good home" dog on Craigslist.  Lucky for Maddie, she ended up in good hands and soon after ended up in my home as my third GSP.  Jake and Imke accepted her quickly and they all became fast friends.  The rest is history.  She became my girl.

Maddie was crazy!  Other than Imke, I had never experienced a GSP that was that young.  And she was nothing like Imke.  Maddie was high-strung, anxious, and lacked confidence.  She was a horrible traveler-she would get so excited to go on a trip in the car that she would bark and pace the entire drive.  She wasn't very good at walking on a leach either, pulling and weaving and completely unruly.  She was afraid of thunderstorms and fireworks and would pace and pant uncontrollably always trying to find a piece of furniture to hide behind or under.  If a storm moved in during the middle of the night, I would get no sleep because Maddie would climb into bed and do her best to burrow into my armpit-I think she would have crawled into my skin if she could have.   She didn't like the beach either-the lake and waves scared her. 

I had never had a dog quite like her.  Jake had been a really well behaved 6 year old when we brought him home, and Imke had grown up with me, so while she had quirks, I knew how to deal with them.  But Maddie was a new challenge for me.  I can still picture it as we drove down the road,  Maddie with her head out the window barking the entire time.  And the barking didn't stop when I stopped because she would also bark if I left her in the car, even if  just for a couple of minutes.  It was such a hard time for me because, as you all know, I take my dogs everywhere. 

For just over 2 years, Jake, Imke, and Maddie were the three amigos.  While there were times when we would make trips and leave Maddie behind, eventually I couldn't bare the thought of her not joining us and so we worked through(or I just put up with) the stress of traveling with Maddie because the more she joined us, the more I enjoyed having her along and the more her confidence grew. 

When Jake died in September of 2012 just one week before Imke's 9th birthday, I know that having Maddie here made the transition easier for Imke who had never known life without her Jake.  While Imke loved her Jake, Maddie loved Imke.  And in time, I think that Imke really learned to love her too.  For the 6 years between Jake's death and Imke's, Imke and Maddie were together almost constantly.  Rarely did they spend time apart and when they did, it was only for short periods of time.  During this time they truly became best friends. 

Maddie continued to change and grow in confidence over the years, and after lots of practice, she eventually became an excellent traveler too.  Of course, she would still get excited for every adventure and loved to go where ever I wanted to take her.  I was happy to be able to have her join me as we traveled the country.  She continued to improve as a traveler and I'm so excited she was able to make it to 49 States with me and Imke.  It always makes me smile when I'm watching TV and see a place we have been...and I look over at her on the couch and say "Maddie, we've been there."  I don't know if she remembers any of our trips, but it is nice to know that we have shared so many awesome experiences together.  We had plans to travel to Canada this Summer so that Maddie could add traveling to all 10 Canadian Provinces to her resume, but that is now on hold.  I still hope she'll be able to make that trip with me though.

Maddie has welcomed every single foster that I've brought home with me.  She's been here since the very first one.  I'll never forget how sad my sensitive girl was when our first foster got adopted after being here for 2 months.  Maddie really missed her terribly and sulked for two days.  She has adjusted to the new friends coming and going pretty regularly.  While I'm sure she's glad to see some of them go, she is always tolerant and happy to have them here, eventually.  She has shared her mom with a lot of other dogs and has been a real champ at doing so.  I always know that any dog I bring home with me will be welcomed and will become a snuggle pal and pillow for her. 

While our first several trips to the beach with her were a real challenge, Maddie has embraced her life as a Michigander and has become quite the lover of the beach and Great Lakes.  I never would have expected how much she would grow to love our trips to the UP and the shores of Lake Superior.  But I am sure glad that she has learned to love these places as much as I do.

No matter the season, Maddie is happiest when we are at the beach. 

 
Despite the early challenges of walking her, we continued to get out and hike.  She has explored many places, from remote wooded areas to urban landscapes and has loved them all.  But she definitely loves the woods the best.  She is a GSP after all.  She has hiked nearly 500 miles on the North Country Trail and has joined the Woofer Walk eight times...generally being handed off to a complete stranger so that one of our dog walkers from the shelter would have a dog to walk, and she's always gone willing.

She is my patient, gentle soul.  She has learned to stand nicely, even when she doesn't want to, when complete strangers from across the country have asked if  they could pet her.  And while kisses from Maddie are rare, she will freely give them to young children because Maddie has a soft spot for kids.  I have to believe that is because she grew up with them.  I love when young kids approach and ask to pet her and she surprises them with a kiss.  And if you aren't a kid and are lucky enough to receive one of those kisses that will be offered on rare occasions, they are a special treat.  When you receive one, you know that you are loved. 

Maddie has been there with me through some tough times, but the hardest for us both was the day Imke died.  She took Imke's loss very hard and hasn't quiet been the same since that day.  She has slowed down significantly and has become a bit more anxious and she's even more attached to me than she was before, but she still loves life.  In her old age, she has struggled with the heat and has had some arthritis which prevents her from doing as much as she used to, but she is still always ready for an adventure. 

Someday, when I think back on my time with her, the thing I want to remember the most about life with Maddie is that she lived it to the fullest and with joy.  From the early days of what our friends now call "Crazy Maddie" to today, as my sweet old soul, she has been a treasure.  I'm so glad that she came into my life all those years ago.  She is one special girl.

Maddie is just a happy dog who enjoys life to the fullest and I'm convinced she will to the very end.   

Tails from Quarantine: Episode six

Oh what a week it has been.  Since Piper came to us nearly one month ago, life has been hard.  The girls and I had gotten into a good rhythm with me working from home and the two of them napping most of the day while I worked.  But then Piper showed up with her pent up energy and anxiety, and nothing was the same.  There was no more calm and quiet days, and outside of the time when I was sleeping, I had no time to relax.

Piper has some pretty serious anxiety.  I've honestly never known such an anxious dog.  Her days are spent pacing, once she gets moving in the morning, she does not relax.   She will pace and pace and all of the anxiety leads her to drink and pee... a lot.  While I tried to explain the level of anxiety to the vet's office, it felt like my concerns fell on deaf ears.  Making the situation even worse for me is that I was home 24 hours per day, with her constantly.

If you've ever lived with someone, whether human or canine, that has anxiety, you will understand what I mean when I say that it was exhausting, both mentally and physically exhausting.  If you've never lived with it, I don't think you can fully appreciate how trying and exhausting it is.  And while it was hard for me, my biggest concern was for Piper.  Watching her pace in circles around my living room every night was just heartbreaking.  Can you imagine how that must feel to not be able to just relax, to let your guard down and just relax?

We spent a lot of our days trying to keep Piper busy, just trying to find ways to reduce some of the energy and anxiety.  We took lots of long walks and I stuffed lots of Kongs full of peanut butter, because honestly, the only way to get her to stop moving was to give her a Kong.  But that quiet didn't last long.

Over the weeks, things did improve slightly.  She would relax for short periods of time in the morning.  She especially loved to hang out with me in the office while I worked.  But once it hit noon, her anxiety would return and there would be no peace.

In an effort to reduce some of my stress and stay healthy during this time, I've been trying to do some yoga.  But even what should have been a relaxing session of yoga was regularly interrupted by Piper and her anxiety.

We continued to work toward our 100 miles of hiking for the month of April and I was happy to get out into the woods and enjoy the Spring flowers. I love the woods in the Spring.  The girls really enjoyed it too.

But even a walk with Piper was full of anxiety and far from relaxing.   I know I have friends who remember the days of walking with a much younger "crazy" Maddie.  Piper is worse.  Every car, bird, squirrel, dog, human, moving leaf sends her into a frenzy.  But even a calm walk with her is full of pacing.

By the end of each walk, her leash is so tangled with Peaches' that they can't do much more than walk in a straight line.

Thankfully, the rescue took my concerns seriously and we arranged to have Piper meet with my own veterinarian this week.  With that appointment on Thursday and having someone actually listen to my concerns and take them seriously, everything has changed.  Piper is finally on medication for her anxiety, and in just three days since that happened, life has improved immensely for all of us.   I knew that the medication was working when Piper laid down for a mid-afternoon nap, because it is the first time she's done that since coming to my home.

While I'm not sure the medication will help with her craziness while on a walk, at least now she is calmer and better at listening to me and we have a better chance to work on those behaviors.

On Thursday, we were excited to get out for a walk along the Lansing Riverwalk in Old Town.  It was a cooler evening and a nice change of pace from our walks around our neighborhood.  We took a 3 mile walk that night which allowed me and Peaches to reach 100 miles for the month of April and Maddie to reach 50 miles for the month of April, and when added to the 50 miles we had completed on the NCT in the first three months of the year, we were able to officially finish our Hike 100 Challenge for 2020.  While I am still hoping to get our final 50 miles on the trail later this year as well.  I was happy that we could take advantage of the ability to hike from home in April so that we could be sure that Maddie would complete the challenge this year.  This is the fifth year I've completed the challenge, the fourth year for Maddie, and the third year for Peaches.  We were happy to have Vanessa join us for a safe, socially distanced walk too and to be able to get this great picture for us.

Friday morning started with a very relaxed Piper.  She has finally discovered what it means to be a GSP and is perfecting one of their favorite sleeping poses.

She was also able to take some time to relax in the son on Friday afternoon.  This is a miracle.  After weeks of not being able to relax, she is finally able to stop pacing and just settle down and enjoy a peaceful moment.

Now that things are more normal again, we're able to do some fun activities and we're having fun having Piper here with us.  Of course this medication hasn't changed everything.  She is still provides me with an audience every time that I cook.

We are now able to spend more time with fun activities, training, and evening just sitting outside to enjoy the sunshine on the last few beautiful Spring days.

One of the favorite activities I like to do with the girls is foraging for their dinner.  We've spent some time enjoying this activity a few times over the last few days and it's a great way to keep the girls busy while I get other things done.

After a busy day of activities, it's nice to see Piper feeling comfortable enough to climb up on the sofa next to Peaches and relax.  This is a change for us as well.  Prior to being on her anxiety meds, Piper would have nervously paced back and forth most of the evening, too nervous to climb up on the furniture next to one of the girls.

In addition to some old favorites, we have also tried a couple of new games.  Yesterday we had a fun round of bobbing for apples.  It went so well that we had to do a second round with celery and frozen blueberries. This will definitely be a fun activity that we will use again

With the help of our fun activities, a daily peanut butter filled Kong, and the medication, we have all been able to relax a bit and enjoy each day a little more

Peaches has especially appreciated the extra time outside over the last few days.  She is enjoying our wonderful sunny weather and the warmer temperatures.

Dealing with less anxiety has given us the change to spend more time having fun and it has allowed more of Piper's personality to shine.  I have discovered that she loves to give kisses and that she is even sweeter than I though originally.  One of many firsts, she actually had a great game of chase with Peaches last night and joined Peaches in playing with the neighbor's dog through the fence. And this morning we had a great round of fetch before everyone decided to take a nap in the sun.  I'm so thankful that she is starting to feel more relaxed and I am really enjoying this chance to really get to know her.  She's going to make some lucky family very happy.

Tails from Quarantine: Episode Five

Hello everyone!  I decided to change things up a bit and add an additional blog post this week.  I'm excited to share some of the ways I've been spending my time and making sure nothing is going to waste here while we're dealing with unstocked grocery store shelves and potential food shortages.  I'm generally pretty frugal, but I've been using some of my extra time to make even better choices and make sure nothing goes to waste.

If you're anything like me, not knowing what is going to be available when I buy groceries or how long things are going to last, you may be buying extra of some of the things that you really want to keep in your home.  For me, that means the potential for fresh produce, especially vegetables.  As I get close to the next shopping adventure, I look through the fridge to see what I may need and this week, I discovered several things that needed to be used before going to waste.

As I pulled out all of the veggies that I needed to prep for use, I had an audience.  Because in my house, veggie cutting means special treats for good girls.  They are always pretty well behaved and don't beg as much as they just wait patiently for me to share scraps.  Even Piper has caught on to this tradition, and she even understands that she needs to be out of the kitchen to earn a treat.

The first thing I spent my time on was cutting up veggies for use during the week.  I've been eating a lot of celery and cauliflower as snacks or with sandwiches at lunch.  I got two big bags of those prepped because if they are cut and ready to eat, I'm much more likely to eat them.

I had enough extra cauliflower leftover that I knew I wouldn't be able to eat, plus I had a couple of zucchini that needed to be used, so I cleaned and cut them up and prepped them to freeze.  After a quick blanching, they went onto the sheet tray to pre-freeze them before bagging them.

I also had a couple of cabbages to prep and freeze. And I kept one chunk with some of my homemade veggie stock fresh out of the freezer to cook up something yummy for dinner.

Because there had been a good deal on zucchini, I had bought extra, so I shredded some up for some homemade zucchini bread.  This is enough for two loaves of bread and I froze one other bag for some future bread making.  There is nothing like some fresh zucchini bread as a nice treat.  It is also great to use to make a special french toast breakfast.  Yummy!

As I cut up my veggies, I throw all of the ends and extra chunks into a giant stock pot.  This pot is full of celery ends and leaves, carrot pieces, broccoli and cauliflower stems, brussel sprouts ends, tomato pieces, and some spinach that was nearing the end.  I also threw in some dried rosemary from last year's garden. Fill it with water and simmer it for an hour and you have a great veggie stock ready for soups, stews, and other delicious meals.  Plus the house smells amazing.

 

I pulled the food saver out of the closet and vacuum sealed all of my awesome veggies for future use.  The zucchini will be great in soups and casseroles and everything else freezes really well for steaming for future meals.

After simmering the veggie stock for an hour and allowing it to cool, I strained it and used some ball jars I had stored in the basement to store the stock.  I filled the jars about 2/3 full to allow for expansion when they freeze.  After allowing the jars to cool even further in the fridge, I took them down to the basement and put them in the freezer.  There are so many great uses for this veggie stock, but I'm really excited to make a homemade minestrone with some of this.

As I cut veggies, I realized I had too much to add to the stock pot this time around, so I stuck the extras in a bag which will go into the freezer for a future batch of stock.  I'll add to bag over time as I cut veggies throughout the week to make sure nothing goes to waste.

In addition to this bag, there are some items, like the leaves of the cauliflower, leaves from the cabbage, and any parts of the zucchini and green beans, that don't work well for making stock.  I throw all of those items into my garbage bowl, along with with other items I've cut up over the last couple of days-like potato peels and the leaves from strawberries.  Once the bowl is full, I walk it across the street to the wooded area across the street for all of the deer and other critters living back there.  I even had some egg shells that I added to the bowl this time.  Can you tell I hate to see anything go to waste?

In addition, after draining the veggie stock, I have all of these amazing cooked veggie pieces.  These always get saved in a bowl for a special addition to the girls meals for the week.  It adds vitamins and fiber to their diet and they are always so excited for the special addition to their meals.

I also learned recently that it is possible to save eggs that are nearing their expiration date by freezing them.  I had a partial carton that needed to be used, so I decided to try it.  Just break open and mix the egg and pour into an ice cube tray.  I discovered that 1 large egg filled about two ice cubes. Once they are frozen solid, pop them out of the ice cube tray and into a freezer bag for future use.  What a great way to make sure you aren't wasting eggs.  These will be used for some future baking!

Another thing I love to do is save any old slices of bread before it gets moldy and unable to use and then stick those in the food processor to make some homemade bread crumbs.  This weekend, I think I'm actually going to try to use up some of my bread and make some croutons.

A couple of month ago I found a new recipe for Zucchini and Corn Cannelloni which is really tasty.  So while I was prepping veggies, I cut up some zucchini for this recipe as well.  I prepped the filling for a meal later in the week.  I made extra so that I could make a double-batch to add to the freezer for a future meal as well.

Of course I had a helper while I was cooking!  Piper really loves her food and gets very excited about the special treats she gets while I'm cooking.

The final product is delicious and I've wrapped and frozen one pan for a meal sometime later this month.  There is nothing better than having a fully prepped meal ready to go.

Another great tip that I've learned recently was to add orange peels and vinegar to a jar to make a homemade orange scented vinegar.  I use vinegar a lot for cleaning and this adds a great orange scent to the vinegar.  I've made a couple jars of this over the last month and I love it.

I'm always looking for ways to save money and make the most of all of my purchases, wasting as little as possible.  I've really enjoyed having some extra time to do these things over the last few weeks.  It's been a great way to spend my time while staying home.