Maggie, The Fearless

We have a routine around here where we take the dogs out at a certain time every night. This is Maggie's favorite time - she lives for it! She's first out the door in order to charge the fence with such ferocity that whatever monsters are lurking in the the darkness beyond flee in terror. She then does a fence perimeter check. Woe be unto whatever may have ventured inside the fence because she will be on it like "a duck on a June bug." She is totally fearless.

Maggie takes her self-appointed job seriously. She eliminates field mice, grasshoppers, rabbits, tarantulas, flying insects, scorpions, wolf spiders, and the like. Should the offending insect or animal disappear into a hole in the ground or under the deck, she is determined to catch and eliminate. In fact, we keep an extra load of dirt around to fill the holes she digs to locate the object of her obsession. There are times when we start filling the holes that I think our yard must be a bombing target range. No varmint or insect escapes Maggie no matter how deep she must dig. Need I even mention that only rose bushes have survived since Maggie's arrival; plants are also considered invaders.

I can live with the holes, but what annoys me the most about Maggie is when she finds a skunk on one of her two daily walks with my husband. Nothing deters her from grabbing the skunk and slamming it to the ground! Our other dog, Luc, the Lab, takes one whiff and retreats, but Maggie charges on. It is disgusting! The walks are now timed to hopefully avoid running into a skunk, i.e., a couple of hours after sun up and early evenings before dusk. The Daylight Savings time change plays havoc with the walks because here in Texas temperatures rise quickly after the sun comes up and do not descend until long after sunset.

I found a de-skunking solution on the Internet which works fairly well, especially on Luc since he does not get the full force of Mr. Skunk. The solution is one quart peroxide, 1/4 cup baking soda, and two tablespoons of a mild dish washing liquid. Leave the mixture on the dog for about ten minutes before washing off. However, I've added one more step to Maggie and that is the tomato juice bath prior to the peroxide solution. Neither solution, though, seems to remove a Mr. Skunk encounter from collars.

So now you've been introduced to Maggie, a bit of a hussy and shop dog extraordinaire.

Until next time, God bless.