The Protection Racket

I wander into the bedroom and find Maisie, as per usual, curled up in a small, compact ball, her chin on the heap that is my standard t-shirt and cargo shorts, carelessly thrown there after our morning walk. Her sumptuous tail is wrapped around her, its tip grazing her nose. When she sees me, her …

What Maisie Knows

It was her eyes that first pulled me in, Maisie’s big, searching, liquid gold, Egyptian princess, smoky, kohl-lined eyes. She looked up at me, looked straight into my broken heart and held on tight, didn’t let go. She still hasn’t. She has a fantastic, cascading tail; she has disheveled, raggedy ears that look like an …

In Which Maisie Schools Me on Non-Judgment (Travels With Maisie, Part Two)

Maisie has two modes of leash walking. One mode is her daytime walk, her nose pointed straight ahead, tail pointed back and slightly down, ears relaxed and dancing in time with her steps. She is very clearly on a mission to get somewhere —anywhere — and she walks with intense determination, as if she is …

Confessions of a Ruthless Perfectionist

There is a heaviness in the air as my husband and I get out of the truck and make our way up the front walk, but the minute we open the door, Maisie is there, tail wagging, up on her hind legs, her tiny front feet pawing the air and then landing on my legs. Even …

Here’s to a Year With Little Miss Sunshine

The date came and went, with barely a blip on the radar. My husband took her around the park and I managed to get myself out for a two block walk, but other than that, Maisie’s year anniversary with us was dramatically uneventful. That was not how I had planned things to be. At the …

Maisie the Omnivore’s Nonexistent Dilemma

It’s 14 degrees with a wind chill of half that and there is at least a foot of untracked, new snow in the meadow. In spite of this fact, I have my mitten off and a piece of chicken gizzard in my bare hand, and I am down on one knee, waiting to reward Maisie, …

Tangible Love in a Virtual World

I am cozied up to my husband on our sofa in front of the wood stove and we are both attached to our respective iPads. (Mine has a pink cover, his has a black and white skull-themed cover. There you go.) I’ve grown weary of the state of the world I’m encountering in the New …

In Which Maisie Shares her Joy of Running

Maisie and I are going for a run together. If this statement conjures up a Madison Avenue image of dog-and-owner-running-together — Maisie trotting happily beside me on a lovely wooded trail while I bound along like a gazelle, my pony tail swish-swish-swishing behind me in time to our footsteps, my outfit perfectly coordinated, my cheeks sporting …

Shaggy Ears and All

Maisie is having a particularly bad hair day. She is in desperate need of a haircut, something to which I hadn’t given much thought, mostly because I am thoroughly charmed by her shaggy, disheveled ears. Most mornings, she looks a bit like a washed-up starlet, lazily lifting her head without actually moving the rest of …

Let Your Heart Break Wide Open

It is a quiet and fair January day, the light soft and muted, the sky looking like it’s been painted by Monet. The sun is out and it is trying, really, really trying, but it is low in the sky and far away and so it is still damn cold, in the mid-teens, but even …