I’m not really sure what I can say about Maverick that I haven’t already said on here. I could probably write a book about him, but honestly, if I had time for that I’d write a book about me, or Mom (side note: I remember listening to the speech Richard Nixon gave to the White House staff before leaving office and one of the things he said was “Nobody ever wrote a book about my mother”… and right then I thought, I’m going to write a book about my mother. To date, this has not happened). Anyway, I will try to touch on some of the highlights, if you will, of what has been the life of a great dog.
The Wife and I got Maverick in the summer of 2004 from the Charleston Animal Society (back then I think they were still the John Ancrum SPCA). At the time, The Wife really wanted to have a baby and things just weren’t working out for us in that department… so she decided we needed a puppy (after all, she said, Lucy is lonely and needs a friend to play with while we’re at work). Looking back on it now, this may be the moment (getting Maverick) when Lucy started to turn on The Wife. Anyway, Lucy and Maverick would go on to have a love/hate relationship. As for Maverick, the day we went looking to adopt, The Wife saw him and fell in love. It was raining and he went and curled up in her lap and she knew she wanted him. My best guess is he is a daschund/spaniel mix… we’ve always called him the Shaquille O’Neal of daschunds. The people at the SPCA had named him “Flash”, but like you, we thought that name was stupid and changed it to Maverick (which, if you must know, was my nickname my senior year of high school).
Shortly after we brought him home (like within a week) there was what I like to call an “incident”. I was in bed sleeping and The Wife was ready for me to wake up, so she put Maverick on the bed. He then walked up my body, stood on my chest with his front paws on my shoulders, put his nose right up to mine and… coughed in my face. I can’t say I was a fan of his early on.
There was also the night I fell asleep with Maverick licking my forehead… only to wake up to find out HE had fallen asleep mid-lick and was drooling on my face.
He would dig holes in our backyard for Lucy to lie down in (to cool off). He would also lick Lucy’s ear until it was soggy (he was a strange dog).
He belonged to The Wife until late 2005 when we brought Mary Ruth home. From that moment on, he followed me.
I honestly can’t remember how many rats he killed in our old backyard, but I know it was over 10. At some point, he decided it was his job to protect our house… and once he decided that, no rat or lizard was safe. He was also the dog who watched my back while I killed the snake that had bitten Scooby.
Until very late in his life, he loved to sing with me. Our favorite song was Me and My Shadow, but he was probably most famous for the videos on this blog of him singing Happy Birthday to my loved ones.
The hardest part of having a pet is saying goodbye, but it’s one of those things that has to happen. Maverick was the last family dog to have known Dach (my childhood dog). Dach, for what it’s worth, hated Maverick. Of course, Dach was old and Maverick was just a young punk of a dog back then. Perhaps one day, if I’m lucky, I’ll get to see Dach, Lucy and Maverick again. Until that day, I’ll thank God for the time He gave me with Maverick and for the memories The Wife, The Kids and I will share of this great dog.
Below are some pics of Maverick (in no real order)...
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| I wouldn't have guessed it, but Maverick and Gertrude were pretty good friends. |
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| Protecting our house |
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| Maverick and Lucy |
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| He's never been a big fan of The Kids... but he did seem to take to Daniel a little faster than he did the others. |
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| You should have seen the other guy... |
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| Our "Moses" picture of Maverick... looking into the "promised land" of the farm. |
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