Follow Up: Maddux (Formerly George)

If you ask any of our friends to tell a story about Maddux, they’ll have an entire repertoire to repeat.  We love this dog so much that we can’t stop talking about him!  We rescued Maddux approximately one year ago (formerly named George) from a couple that had found him wandering a downtown park in Manhattan.  We took him home and went about the hard work of getting him settled in.  He took about a month to calm down and trust us, but once he realized that we weren’t giving him back, he developed into a loving and hysterical puppy. 

Maddux’s favorite things to do include jumping in leaves, running in snow, swimming, playing with his buddies and EATING, EATING, EATING.  We live near Central Park and often take him out there in the mornings to run around.  As soon as he’s off leash, he runs about a mile away, but all you have to do is call his name and jiggle a bag of Milkbones and he’s back by your side in a second.  Maddux went to obedience school shortly after we got him and he quickly rose to the head of the class.  The instructor told us that we should look into training him to visit nursing homes since he is so gentle and he listens so well.  In Maddux’s mind, obedience school was a breeze – who wouldn’t sit and roll over for such yummy treats as Puperonis and Jerky Snacks!

We have to thank Maddux for introducing us to the neighborhood.  Before we had him, we were like most New Yorkers who barely knew the names of our next-door neighbors.  Now, we can’t even turn on to our block without someone calling his name.  He’s a big favorite with the kids that live in our building, the bartenders at our local sports bar and the antique dealer around the corner (who happens to keep dog biscuits in a tin in his store). 

We can’t say that Maddux is always perfect – he does have faults, but even those usually make us laugh.  We can’t leave Kleenex boxes out unless we want to find each tissue carefully extracted and scattered across the bed.  We had a very sick puppy on our hands when we accidentally left a banana bread sitting on the stovetop to cool.  We know that if we don’t feed him early enough in the morning, he’s going to sit right in front of us and plead with those big brown eyes.   We can’t leave him alone with rawhides either because during the “Rawhide Killing Process” when he alternately tosses the rawhide across the room and pounces on it, if the rawhide ends up behind the couch, Maddux is going to rearrange the furniture to his liking. 

All that said, though, we both feel an incredible rush when we watch this super-athletic dog run across a field with a stick in his mouth, we observe his gentle touch when he meets a puppy on the street or when we are the beneficiaries of his excited wiggles, kisses and nibbles when we come home.  We can’t thank Boxer Rescue enough for not limiting itself to pure breed dogs.  Maddux was mixed to perfection and we’re thrilled that he’s ours!

Jen, Sean and Maddux Brevick