Kindness of strangers

Believe it or not, Maggie has a favorite movie, "Streetcar Named Desire", with Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh. Although Maggie seems more like the Stanley Kowalski, very butch and masculine, Maggie's favorite character is Blanche. "Here comes my favorite line," she'll say, and then in her best attempt at a feminine Blanche DuBois voice she'll say, "Whoever you are, I have always depended on the kindness of strangers."

Well this past weekend, Maggie put her favorite line to the test.

We left Maggie in my sister's yard in Montclair when we went to Twain Harte. She always has a great time there playing with my sister's dog. However, after we were about an hour into our road trip, I received a message from my sister that Maggie had escaped from her yard. I checked our home messages (Maggie's tag has our home number) and there were messages about Maggie from two people:

Person #1) I saw your dog on the corner of Balboa and Asilomar. She's just running around the street without a leash, she's probably going to get hit by a car around here. Good luck finding her. (Thank you asshole, I hope one day you lose something valuable and I can leave you a similar helpful message.)

Person #2) I found your dog. She was taking a dump in my front yard. When she was done I brought her inside and fed her and gave her some cookies. She must be so tired having come to Montclair from Albany. Oh, and don't worry, the dog food is organic. Please call me at...

I called #2 and the nice woman was about to take Maggie to the dog park with her own two dogs. But I called my sister and she picked her up and took her to my mom's house, where we all thought she would be secure in the yard. We thought wrong.

On Saturday night, around 7:30, I got a message from my sister that my mom had been in San Jose all day and came home to find that Maggie was missing. My sister was on her way out to Moraga to help my mom in the search. I checked my messages.

There was a message from 10am (my mom said she left around 10) from a woman that she was jogging past a cafe (only a couple blocks from my mom's house) and saw Maggie there. Maggie kind of followed her on her run so the woman took her into her home, fed her and that she was still there playing with her dog in the backyard.

I was almost tempted to leave her there since it sounded like she was at least safe in a yard with another dog. But I called her back, thanked her, and then gave my mom her phone number and address so she could pick her up. I gave my mom strict instructions to keep Maggie in the garage and to let her out to do her business only with my mom, and on a leash.

What a weekend for Maggie. Luckily she did not get hurt and is now safely back in our yard. We were lucky that Maggie's charm and winning personality attracted the right people to her before she fell into trouble. My mom thinks that she is so attached to us that she escaped to try and find us. Or maybe she did it so she could have her own posting on this blog?

Maggie is probably the sweetest dog out there. Although she's' almost eight years old, she still has a puppy-like attitude and will drop everything to play ball. She has gracefully accepted her demotion from top dog in the house to the bottom of the totem pole without harboring any resentment toward Lucas. Maggie has never snapped at him or even let out as much as a growl. She is uber-friendly to all our guests and everyone she meets. Maggie never jumps on the furniture, never chews on things inside, and knows never to come upstairs. She is a dream dog actually.

Maybe we can take Maggie on our next vacation. But in the mean time, I will need to find a nice movie for her about an agoraphobic.