A Life of Words

Fifteen years ago this week, on January 31, 2009, Kay, our two young children – 7 and 4 years old – and I spent the morning with our oldest’s Cub Scout friends at their Pinewood Derby in southwest Arlington. Afterward, the four of us drove nearly an hour to Richardson, a northern suburb of Dallas, to a Richardson Humane Society pet adoption event at PetSmart.

Later that afternoon, we had a precious new family member, a female terrier mix who was estimated to be almost 3 years old. And we are infinitely blessed that Maisy is still here for us to love on, approaching her 18th year and filling our lives with absolute joy.

But back to adoption day 2009.

Kay and I, who are most definitely dog people (although we did break down and adopt our rescue kitty Teena in 2012), had been searching online for months for the right rescue pup but hadn’t been able to make a decision. Our family had been without a dog for several years, and we were long overdue for another canine companion.

We had gone to other adoption gatherings and even brought home a sweetheart named Winnie earlier that same January, but sadly, she didn’t work out for us. We felt awful about bringing Winnie back after I returned home from the funeral of my birth family brother Robin in Florida.

So we kept looking on petfinder.com that month at other dogs available for adoption. There are always so many great choices that leave your heart and head torn. Finally we found a cute, cream-colored, house-trained terrier mix through the Richardson Humane Society. She was in a foster home with the family of a wonderful lady named Denise and was going to be at the PetSmart event, so we decided to go see her.

As soon as we arrived, we went to find May. We learned she’d been given that name because she was rescued in May 2008. As a mix, she was a bit larger (23-24 pounds) and taller than other terriers we’d seen, and she was adorable and stood in her cage barking. We looked around at the other dogs, but didn’t see any we fell in love with. May drew us back and we spent more time with her.

We saw that she was listed as 3 years old (her estimated DOB is July 1, 2006, so about 5 months younger). We knew terriers have lots of energy, and that was obvious about May. It didn’t take long for us to decide she was the one for us to bring home.

After filling out the paperwork to adopt her and paying the best $150 we’ve ever spent, we soon left for home with May. We asked someone to take a photo of us with her outside PetSmart (below).

With young children, we decided to change her name and chose Maisy, based on the children’s book series our kids had enjoyed about a clever, kind mouse (it also became a short-lived TV cartoon series).

We could never have dreamed that our miraculous Maisy would still be with us so many years after that day. Based on information from the American Kennel Club, Maisy’s age in human years is probably somewhere in the early to mid-90s. To show how long she’s been our beloved family member, those young children of ours are now 22 and 19 years old!

There are lots of remarkable things to report about Maisy at her advanced age. Although her back legs are getting weak (she often sits when she’s eating now) and they sometimes give out just a bit when she’s standing or walking, she can still jump up and down from furniture and goes through her “doggie window,” which we set up a couple of years ago, to the backyard multiple times a day. When she goes out and the weather is nice (heck, even when it’s really cold or hot!), she spends long stretches wandering and sniffing around the yard.

Maisy also still enjoys going on walks, although we don’t take her on those as often as we used to (and whereas she used to dictate the pace, the walks are much slower now). If she sees a squirrel in the backyard, she’ll still give chase and runs *very* fast when doing so. It’s truly amazing that a dog as old as Maisy can still move that fast.

Although our persnickety cat Teena wants anything but to play with her canine rival, Maisy sees Teena as a playmate and sometimes chases her, which results in Maisy getting an earful of hissing and batting from feline paws. Not that Maisy can hear the hisses, because she can barely hear anything anymore. She can hear us if we clap or yell, but otherwise she’s quite deaf. Her vision still seems good, though.

Maisy’s weight has fallen several pounds in recent months because of her age, even though her appetite is still pretty good – she now weighs about 16. As far as her relationship with Teena goes, let’s just say Teena puts up with Maisy … because isn’t that what cats do?

Kay is convinced Maisy has some canine dementia, but I’m not so sure. A few months ago when Maisy started having accidents in the house, we thought it might be because she was confused about going outside to do her business. But after talking to our vet, we feel it’s just a natural old-age occurrence – partly loss of bowel and bladder control, partly because when she feels she needs to go, there are just going to be times when she’ll go wherever she’s at.

A couple of months ago, we bought a large cage for Maisy to sleep in next to our bed, and we put pads inside so she doesn’t get up and have accidents in the house during the night. She’s been fine with that, but when we hear her wake needing to go outside, we just get up and let her out.

Maisy has always been more attached to and protective of Kay than anyone. She misses Kay so much when she’s gone, and that’s happened a lot the past two years when Kay was taking our youngest to a high school in, coincidentally, Richardson and would be gone most of the day. Since I started working mostly from home when the pandemic hit in March 2020, I got to see Maisy’s routine of often wandering around the house like she’s looking for Kay when she’s gone for long periods. Sometimes she’ll get up on the couch and stare at the front door as if to say, “Is Mommy coming home soon?”

I wouldn’t call it separation anxiety, because that usually comes with serious behavioral problems, but Maisy definitely has always had separation issues when it comes to Kay and often sticks to her like glue. Even today, when Kay went to visit her mother in Dallas for a few hours, Maisy spent most of the time pacing because she knew the person she loves most was gone. But once Kay gets home and Maisy realizes everything’s back to normal, she’ll usually go into our bedroom and take a nap.

Last spring, Maisy went on an adventure when she escaped from our house for over an hour. We’re pretty sure the front door was accidentally left open and she slipped through, roaming nearly a mile away and ending up in the middle of a busy street that borders our subdivision before some dear folks rescued her.

We realize that even though Maisy is doing surprisingly well for her age, she is a very, very old dog, is developing geriatric issues, and we must watch her closely. But we know how extremely fortunate we are to have had her as part of our family for 15 years and for her to be in reasonably good health for a nearly 18-year-old pup.

And for that, we are so thankful. We love you so much, our sweet May-May girl. ❤