Day 32

Last night, Maxine started trying to jump up onto the couch. I hadn’t really paid attention to the weather forecast, but this is how I knew a storm was coming. Maxine is scared of thunder and tries to climb into the smallest space she can find. Maxine also can’t jump very well anymore, so I helped her onto the couch and she immediately went into a corner, face first, and stayed there for duration of the thunderstorm.

Maxine came to us through a coworker I had at Neiman Marcus. He was moving out of state and wanted to find a home for her. Over the years, she endeared herself to my mom and though she didn’t outrank Bowser, my mom favored her. The joke between us was that Mom could walk into a room and find Maxine standing over me with a bloody knife in her mouth and Mom would still ask me what I did to Maxine to deserve that. Morbid humor, I know, but that’s how we were.

When there was thunder, Maxine always ran to my mom, who would then soothe her. I used to make fun of Maxine because you just don’t expect a 62 pound dog to be afraid of thunder. It just now occurred to me how Mom was the person me and the dogs all ran to when we were scared.

I wonder if Mom knew how much all of us loved her. I hope she did.