MADDIE THE WONDER DOG (#16): When Cathy decided she wanted a dog she went to the SYPC in Ft. Myers. She walked down the the line of cages and noticed that the black dog in the last cage had a tennis ball in her mouth. Cathy says the dog set the ball on the floor, snapped it up in the air with her right paw and caught it in mouth. Then the dog gave her a look as if to say, “Don’t make me play by myself”, and did it again.
Cathy went to the front desk and said, “I’d like to test drive the dog with the tennis ball.” The lady at the front desk said, we were hoping someone would notice that. We don’t usually let dogs have toys in their cages, but we just didn’t have the heart to take away her ball.” Cathy says, “We went into a little courtyard, and all the dog wanted to do was play with her tennis ball. It was the sweetest thing.” So, Cathy picked Maddie.
Maddie was part pit bull bull and black lab. As I told you earlier (TRUST YOUR DOG #2) Cathy explained before I met Maddie that she didn’t like men, “I think her former owner smoked, drank a lot of beer, and left her chained to a tree. She’ll growl at you, but she won’t bite.” But Maddie and I hit it off right away.
Maddie was the smartest dog I have ever met. She only had one fault, she loved to lay on the couch, where she knew she wasn’t allowed because she shed like a Labrador retriever. One day Cathy and and I left her condo, but Cathy forgot something and went right back in. We caught Maddie in mid-air, jumping up on the couch. She looked at us with the guiltiest look on her face as if to say, “I know what this looks like, but I’m not really jumping on the couch!” Then she bounced right off and laid on the floor.
When Cathy sold her condo in Ft. Myers and moved to Pass-a-Grille we were worried about Maddie getting hit by a car because we lived on a busy street that was the only way in and out of the beach. We didn’t need to worry, Maddie the Wonder Dog was far too smart to wander off her property! She was a natural guard dog.
I was always working on projects in the yard, but those are several more stories. I began to notice that whenever I moved to another part of the yard, Maddie would follow me. She’d look around and lay down again. It took me a while to figure out what she was doing. She always laid down between me and the nearest way anyone could come into the yard. She was making sure no one could sneak up on me. Once I’d figured out what she was doing, Cathy bought Maddie another dog bed for downstairs and I would put it where I knew she would want to be when I was working.
Maddie love her big new yard, but what she loved most was playing catch with her tennis ball. We would walk past the ugly condos built where the Rellim Hotel (Miller spelled backwards) have been torn down to a green space and play catch until my arm got tired. We’d start about five feet away from each other. I’d throw the ball, she would catch it in her mouth, then run up, drop it at my feet, and run back to her spot. I’d take a step back and repeat the process. We would often get to at least 60 feet before I made a bad throw. She never missed a catch.
Sometimes she would drop the ball and to tease her a little Cathy or I would say, “I can’t reach that Maddie.” She would always run back, pick up the ball in her mouth and drop it by our foot. If we said, “I still can’t reach that Maddie,” she would run back, pick up the ball again and drop it right on top of our foot.
