Best Dog Ever

Maggie and Stout

 This picture of Maggie and her long distance boyfriend Stout was taken in Summer 2009.

Maggie fell in love with Stout the second she saw him, she ran over and started licking his face and acting like a silly puppy. It was the first time we had ever seen her so happy in the year since we brought her home. He was 110 muscular pounds to her skinny 43 pounds but we never had any worries that he would play too rough for her. 

 

Ooh, what's she doing? Are we going to go for a ride?

 My brother's girlfriend adopted Stout when he was a tiny puppy from a litter of farm dogs. Jen is his favorite person in the entire world, he was watching her in this picture. We only see them a few times a year as it's a 4 hour drive each way, but Maggie is always so happy to see Jen's car in the driveway at my parents' farm. When we see a black lab anywhere she wants to run over and check if it's Stout.

You can take a nap, I'll watch out for the scary peoples.

 Stout would rather lay on a hot gravel driveway near Jen than sleep on the lawn in the shade. He sat near Maggie when he could have gone anywhere else on the farm. Instead of hiding under the table or chairs, Maggie would sit out in the open when Stout was with her. Maggie would eat whatever food Stout was eating, even if she had turned it down before. She loved to hide in her crate until we went to visit and she saw that Stout didn't sleep in a crate at night. She howled and whined until we let her and Duke out and they slept on the air mattress with us for the whole week.

Can we keep him? Pleeeeeeez? I don't care if he already has his own house, farm and peoples.

 If Maggie wasn't so obviously happy having Stout around, I don't know how long it would have taken us to realize that she needed her own dog. It wasn't long after these pictures that we started looking for a buddy for her and we met a few dogs before Duke. Luckily Duke isn't the jealous type, as Maggie would still act like a lovesick puppy whenever she saw Stout. 

 

Stout and Duke eating corn off the cob.(Well, Stout was eating, Duke was just shredding the cobs.)

 Stout tolerated Duke and Griffin barking at him every time he came to visit my parents. He was so cool and relaxed that all of the dogs would calm down after a few minutes. He fit in everywhere like he belonged there, whether off leash on the farm, hiking with my brother and Jen or walking around Boston. When walking Stout I could instantly tell who liked dogs, as they would see this giant black dog and smile. People who were nervous around dogs would cross the street when they saw him, even though he was walking calmly on a flat collar.

Stout and Griffin

Unfortunately Jen found a lump on Stout, and when she took him to the vet he said "to make sure Stout had a good summer." I wish there was a better way he could have said it, or that it didn't need to be said at all. He just made it to summer, as he succumbed to lymphoma this Memorial Day weekend at the age of 9. He was a great dog, and he left a big space to fill.

(I feel really awkward writing this, as he wasn't our dog, but he made a huge difference in our lives, especially for Maggie and Duke.)