Maggie May

Meet Maggie. Maggie was adopted on May 2, 2015 from Hillsborough County Pet Resource Center, a high kill shelter in Tampa, FL. Maggie is 32 lbs and what they call a "pocket pit". Because of my job, I go to the shelter often,  and would have never thought that I would go home with a dog, much less this one, with her little head all scabby and her ears cropped way too short. I always said when it was time to get a dog I would get a big dog. I even sent Peter pictures of other big dogs that were in that shelter the same day, and was told "don't bring one home". 

 

Then Maggie found me. A friend of mine, Mary Beth, is a volunteer at the shelter and brought Maggie out, her name was Magnolia at the shelter. She was so friendly and most of all calm. I found out she would be euthanized because of having a URI (basically a doggie cold) so I took her home and told Peter we would "foster" her. 

 

We fell in love. She is a small little girl with a lot of love to give, she gets along great with the cats, and she is a little dog with a big dog personality. She loves going with us and exploring St. Pete and Tampa. We take her everywhere we can. 

 

We changed her name to Maggie May. I would have liked Maggie Mae (the Beatles song) but since that song is about a prostitute (to be fair, she was found walking the streets of Plant City) Peter decided we should go with the Rod Stewart spelling, so she's now a "cougar". 

 

She is such a good girl, very calm. I've only heard her bark once. We are working on her "social skills" with other dogs but tracing her records back, it was very likely she was a fighting dog, and she was likely abused, so we have a little work to do.

 

Maggie May gets quite a bit of attention when we go out, and we use that attention to advocate for the many dogs just like her that are euthanized at shelters everyday. Any time we are asked about Maggie we say that she is a rescue (partly because I don't want anyone to think I would ever crop a dog's ears), and we tell her story and because of her we are getting more people to go to the shelter and adopt a dog. 

 

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