Macon Maxine Michelle Dwyer

Macon Maxine Michelle Dwyer came into our lives one August about 12 years ago to become Michael's owner. Dachshunds ALWAYS own~they are never owned. Michael had lost a beautiful Keeshond named Max a few years earlier and when we had the opportunity to rescue this little black and tan beauty not far from our home in Richmond, we jumped on it. Macon was named by her foster parents for Randolph Macon College in Virginia and Michael added Maxine in honor of Max and I thought a feminine form of Michael(Michelle) was in order. In Virginia most children are given 3 names so we stuck with tradition and all of our dogs have 3 names.

Macon had a great life with Michael. They shared a bedroom and a major portion of Michael's food(the only time you heard Macon bark was when people food was involved and she wasn't on the receiving end. Not a delicate little "yip" but more like a ear splitting "ARF". Macon even was included in Michael's senior pictures...not sure if Macon was the first Douglas Freeman High School dog included in a photo but she led the way in this family as Katie was in Kiereney's pictures two years later.

In 2005 Michael was accepted into my Alma Mater, Southern Illinois University. I was introduced to thyroid cancer on July 19, 2005 and Michael left for SIU a scant month later. It was understood that I would take care of Macon while he went to college. Truth be told, Macon took care of me those months after the cancer diagnosis. Michael would come home on holidays and in the summer and he and Macon would pick up where they left off.

When Roger and I moved to Illinois in April 2006, Macon came with us. Michael was less than 2 hours from us in college so it seemed natural for Macon to come with Grandma to Illinois. Macon and Shania for the first time were apart from Brandy and Katie and they became buddies. We treated them like twins...one got vanilla wafers, the other got them. One licked one supper plate, the other licked the other one. Shania has always been a Daddy's girl so Macon became Grandma's Girl. She would indulge me and lay like a baby in my arms or on my shoulder and I would cover her up with a "blankie". We snuggled a lot together, especially in the Fall and Winter.

Macon took over Roger's kitchen schedule. At 5 pm every night like clockwork, she would look up from my lap or from her beanbag and see if Roger was in his recliner. If he was, she would drag herself out of her beanbag, make her way over in front of his chair and SNORT. How ever many times it took to get his attention, she snorted. We would acknowledge that, oh yes, it was 5 and time for supper to be cooked and as soon as she saw the kitchen light come on, she felt it was safe to go back to her beanbag and emerge when supper was served to make sure one of our plates would be dedicated to her.

No one liked Dairy Queen ice cream more than Macon! Thank God she had some a couple of weeks ago.

She even had her own theme songs Grandma made up about how cute she was and it was bedtime ritual that I would put her on our bed, start singing and she would roll on her back and wiggle until the 3 songs were over and then she claimed her half of the bed starting out in the middle of the bed and ending up between our pillows with her head on a pillow and somehow the sheet pulled up right under her front legs like a human would pull up to under their arms. We never knew how she did that!

There were several times over the last couple of years that she would go to sleep in the beanbag so soundly that I thought she had died. You could pick her up in a dead sleep and she would finally wake up and look at you as if to say 'What.The.Hell!"

This past Saturday night nestled in her beanbag next to Shania, she cried out in her sleep and nearly 2 hours later she was gone of an apparent massive heart attack. One of my best friends is a vet so when I got the call when Roger and I were 50 miles outside of Oklahoma City, I had the girls on one phone in one ear and my vet friend Carol in the other, asking Kelli to check Macon for this or that and it was determined that Macon was in shock and her gums bleached out white immediately indicating heart failure to Carol. The girls got ahold of Michael and he talked to Macon on the phone as the hearing is the last to fail. I got to talk to her. The girls did a phenomenal job of dealing with her death and I literally fell apart.

Macon will be buried in the family pet cemetary at Kathy's on Friday morning. Michael will be present and we will toss vanilla wafers(her favorite snack) into her grave.

Macon had a method to her madness on her final exit...she knew Grandma couldn't handle watching her die and not being able to fix her and she didn't want her dad alone after she went to the Rainbow Bridge so we were with Michael the day after she died and it worked out the way Macon would have wanted.

Macon was all about unconditional love. She taught us that a kind word or a cuddle more than made up for the abuse she suffered before she came into our lives. Michael said we gave her the best life possible and she knew she was loved.

Makie Moo Moo, thank you for making my son the happiest dachsie dad ever and thank you for owning us. You are one in a million and we will always be the better people for just having loved you.