Day 88

My mom and I got Maxine from a former coworker who was moving, over 12 years ago. It was supposed to be a trial run, but Mom fell in love with her. We tried to rename her several times; my mom liked Pepper and she vetoed my suggestion of Vaca, which is “cow” in Spanish. But she remained Maxine. It took her a bit to get used to us and the two dogs we had at the time, Bowser and Roxy, but she warmed to us, especially my mom.

Early on, she would occasionally have seizures, which lasted only a few minutes. Mom or I would hold her until it passed. Mom loved her big bark and I liked that she allowed me to dress her up. Whenever there were thunderstorms, she would go hide in a corner or curl up next to Mom. She loved her so much and when my mom went into the hospital last summer, Maxine got uncharacteristically quiet.

I noticed a few weeks ago that whenever I run the dishwasher, she would get anxious and follow me around, even climbing on top of the sofa. I’m not sure why this suddenly came up; she was fine with it before, but Roxy was also with her then. I feel bad running the dishwasher now, but counter space is limited and a drying rack would take up precious real estate.

The dishwasher was full, so it’s going now and she is curled up in front of me on the couch. I helped her up and hugged her. She hid her face in my shoulder as I told her it was okay. She’s finally settled down.

I think we both miss Mom and Roxy a lot.