Guest Posting, by Kristjana’s husband Casey: “A tribute to Maggie”

Maggie “Mooks”, my parents beautiful golden retriever died today as we are vacationing in the Outer Banks NC.   Mooks was 13 years old and lived an incredible life.
 
This is important not because Maggie was a good dog (she was a great dog), but because Maggie spanned an incredible time span in the life of our family.   She was part of 13 years of joys and sorrows for all of us.   Many people have good dogs.   Many people have had special dogs.   Mags was a joy.

I remember when my sister in law Kathie picked out Maggie as a surprise present for my Mom’s birthday, and the look on my Mom’s face as Maggie was brought to the side porch of our house with all of Mom’s friends gathered round.   The next week Maggie spent wedged under the downstairs toilet, doing her best to keep cool and safe in the new, scary environment.

Things got better from there.

Maggie soon shed any worries and realized the Cook home was going to be a fantasy life for a golden.   A large yard, a pool, a never ending number of squirrels and birds to joust with, and a family that doted on her.
 
I remember being at the beach and watching Maggie, during her 2nd week with our family.   This tiny little puppy ran as fast as she could, for as long as she could.   This would equate to 40 or 50 yards, before pooping out and dropping to the sand in sheer exhaustion, panting for 30 seconds, re-energizing her little body.   Then off like a rocket, she did it all over again.   100% effort.   This is how Maggie lived for 13 years.
 
As I sit here today, as a husband and father to a beautiful baby boy, I think back to that day at the beach at Gilgo, on Long Island.   I remember delighting in Maggie the puppy, and wondering where my life would be when Maggie was an old gentle dog.   It wasn’t a sad thought.   It was acknowledging that Maggie was a beautiful little pup that was going to be here a long time.   None of us knew then just how much she would become a family member.   I have not been at home since Maggie was a puppy.   But for years whenever I wanted to think of something happy and peaceful Maggie would come to mind.    I think Dan felt the same way.   I know my little nephew Ryan felt  close to her to.   Seeing “Maggles” was always a highlight of visiting Grandma and Grandpa.
 
Maggie was, upon reflection, a gift that God puts on the earth to help us live better lives.   Isn’t it incredible the different ways that God allows us to delight in his gifts?   For 13 years, many lessons came through Mags.
 
Love is patient – Maggie would wait hours in the same spot for my parents or my brother Dave to return home from whatever he is doing.   Maggie in many ways was Dave’s dog.  
 
Love is kind – Mooks was one of those dogs that made the grumpy old men in town say something nice.   Maggie was therapy to the old, especially my Grandma in her later years.   Maggie was one of the few things that my Grandma would respond to during her last few days in hospice last year.  

Love does not envy (well:.. Maggie didn’t like it when other dogs got more attention, but who could blame her!)
 
Love is not self-seeking – Isn’t this the amazing thing about these wonderful animals?   The live every second for others.   In Maggie’s case, it was to be a constant companion to my Mom and Dad on hundreds of car trips, thousands of walks, and an innumerous number of moments when it just felt good to share an evening or morning with Mooks.   Maggie only wanted to be where they were.  

Love is not easily angered –   What a gentle little pup.
 
Love keeps no record of wrongs.   In the times when we were angry at Maggie, she would want to put her soft beautiful head on our laps, as if to say, “Don’t be mad.   There is no time for that.”       What a world it would be if we could all be so forgiving.
 
There was a desire in Maggie to forever to remain a puppy. I dare to say that her last full day on earth may have been her best.   She had a full day with my Mom and Dad. At dusk last night, Dave and I walked Dudley and Maggie on the beach.   Maggie frolicked like a puppy, playfully galloping and kicking her hind legs in the air as she was let free on the beach, bounding happily into the ocean to fetch a stick or snort some salt water.     Last night her dinner was covered with steak juice and other assorted foods from my mom.   Then while we kicked back and watched a movie last night, we all laughed as Maggie licked my Dad gave Mooks the last of his ice cream.   Why not, right?

Love never ends.   Thank you Lord for Maggie, and your promise to redeem all of creation, to make all of your creation, and creatures, new again.