The sweetie with the woobie in her mouth is Maggie. Of course,
big 'sis' Genoa is by her side. Peg, who lives in Henderson, NY sent us this story on
February 24, 2000. She had a one-year-old Golden that was bought from a breeder when she
was 8-weeks-old. Named Genoa, she was the family's pride and joy. But, Peg and her husband
were suffering from empty nest syndrome because their youngest had just moved to Maryland
for graduate school.
In the fall, Peg suggested to her husband that they look into the rescue program for
Goldens. They filled out an application and had a home visit from two lovely ladies from
the group. They had a dog in mind for Peg, but didn't say anything. They just asked
questions like "would you consider a hard to place dog that has seizures?"
"what do you think about giving a dog medication 2 times a day?" and things like
that. While Peg and her husband wanted to know more about the seizures (frequency,
severity, etc), they felt as long as they knew what was going on, it wouldn't be a
problem.
Maggie, a 3½-year-old didn't have a great start. Her first family 'forgot' to give Maggie
her medication after she started having seizures, so she was having 3 or 4 a day! As this
frightened their 2-year-old child, they turned her over to Golden Rescue. Peg and her
husband drove 2½ hours each way to meet Maggie and fell in love as soon as they met her.
They decided to adopt Maggie and she was brought to them the following weekend.
Maggie has been in her new home for a month now, but
Peg feels like she has been there forever. And, Genoa has decided that a big sister is a
lot of fun, so she has decided to keep Maggie as well. They tussle, sleep on top of one
another, and play Frisbee hard (a lot of chasing going on here) and just generally love
each other. Peg is so glad she decided to adopt Maggie. Since giving her meds twice a day
in her food, she hasn't had a seizure since her arrival. The folks that fostered Maggie
(from October) also never saw her experience a seizure. It's nice to know that proper
medication given regularly can make for a real Golden storybook ending!