Maya’s sotry

This month we are celebrating Maya’s anniversary with our family. She was a mill dog with so many issues I would not know where to begin. Maya was very shy and terrified of loud noises, even bright lights and people. She hated being enclosed and tried to dig her way out of our bathroom. She was never your usual exuberant, happy Lab and she was not always clean in the house. Rosie’s had been called to pick up four Golden Retrievers that were no longer wanted... And they found Maya in a horse stall all alone. And so Anne took her with them. On June 24th, 2006 Maya came to live with us. It was love at first sight for Jasper our aging Lab mix. Maya could do no wrong. They became best friends. Maya's shyness slowly improved. Jasper helped with that. Maya was there beside us when we had to say good-bye to Jasper, we felt that she needed to know that he would not be coming back.

Even after all these years, she still will growl at Alex if he approaches in the wrong way, she will always bark at him as he comes up the stairs or into the house and then 5 minutes later she is on his lap for a cuddle. She is in no way aggressive, but fearful. Thunderstorms and fireworks are top on her list of hated things.

Much to her dismay in November 2009 Angus arrived on the scene. At nine weeks old Angus was already half her size and so Maya learned to smile...then she added growls to those smiles and then she started nipping. Maya still continued to improve, even after Angus' arrival - so much so that in April 2014 she earned a Rally Novice title with scores of 99, 96 and 93. Not at all bad for a 12 year old.

She is slowly aging. Her once completely black fur now has its fair share of white, her eyes are cloudy and the hearing, well I am still not sure if it is age or selective hearing . We still go for walks and she still keeps Angus in line, Maya is obviously the boss and manipulates Angus so easily.

She has been such a joy in our lives and we thank Rosie’s for trusting us with her care. Maya is a great ambassador for dogs, I can take her anywhere and she is welcome, she is just such a good girl. After all these years, she has learned that we can go places together and nothing bad will happen to her.