I have spent my entire life around kids, but I have never before seen love like this between a little girl and her dog.  Watching Maggie and our dogs together is one of the highlights of my day – every single day!  We have two dogs, a male who is about 11 years old and kind of a grumpy old man.  We were worried how Buddy Boy would do when our daughter was born, but he seems to love her.  We have given him his own kennel area that is pretty big.  Mostly, we keep them separated because he has growled and barked and ended up nipping a few people, but when we are sitting with her on our lap and us between her and his mouth, we let her touch and pet him.  There are times he will come up and nudge her for a little attention because he loves her.

Our female dog however is girls best friend.  Lady Jane is 5 and has loved her so much since the day we brought her home, although she does get jealous of the attention our daughter gets.  Now that our daughter is 16 months old, they play together all the time!  There is no way for me to even put into words the joy that everybody gets from their silly games.  At first, Lady was very gentle with Maggie.  Maggie would grab Lady’s rope toy and give it to her and the dog would very carefully take it.  Lady is very strong and could throw Maggie around if she wanted to, but never has.  Now Maggie doesn’t let go, she thinks it’s funny if the dog tries to pull her around with it.  The dog is still gentle, but not as cautious with these toys.

Maggie also really loves to grab the tennis balls and say in her cute little voice, “Lady, Lady” and then throw the ball.  She has a pretty good arm, but sometimes the ball only goes a few feet, other times, it goes across the room.  If she throws it and Lady doesn’t go get it, Maggie gets this really sad face like she’s thinking why won’t the dog listen to me?!  Mostly, the dog doesn’t realize she is talking to her.  It is so cute to watch.  Sometimes, the dog will just lay there and look at me like, do I really have to go get this?

Maggie’s newest little doggie antic is chasing and grabbing Lady Jane’s tail.  She runs around like a mummy with her arms outstretched chasing the dog around the house.  Try as I may, this is not an easy thing to get her to stop doing.  When she finally catches the dogs tail, Lady just keeps going, so Maggie holds on and looks like she is skiing behind the dog.  It goes okay for a short while, then she usually falls.  Most of the time, she doesn’t cry, just jumps back up to chase the dog again.

I am so grateful for their friendship.  It doesn’t matter what toy Maggie is playing with, if the dog is laying on the floor in the room, Maggie grabs her toys and sits down next to the dog to play.  If the dog moves, so does Maggie and her toys.  She loves her doggy so very much!

When Maggie wakes up in the morning, she crawls out of our bed and goes over to Lady Jane on the dog bed and reads to her, usually whatever murder mystery I have sitting by my bed, but sometimes she will go to her room and grab one of her books.  After she reads for awhile, she will get some toys from her room and sit with the dog and play.  If she needs a rest, she will lean back onto the dog and give her a sideways hug.  They are so very adorable together!  It’s great knowing at 16 months old that my daughter already has  best friend.

How about you?  Do you have pets and how do they interact with your child(ren)?  I can only hope that the baby will have such a great relationship with them as Maggie does.