"There's no point in spending your life in the pursuit of something that's easy." - Alice Kuipers

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Maddie the Unsung Hero

I've been trying to get around to writing this blog post all day and the problem I seem to be having is this: I've got nothing to say. Nothing interesting has happened to me over the past two days. I haven't been wrestling with any of the universe's mind bending questions, I've had no issues that needed resolving. If you want a sum up of the last two days, here it is: bad tv and ridiculous amounts of sleep. That doesn't add up to much of a blog post.
I haven't done too much professionally speaking either. Yesterday was submission day, so I spent the day finishing my edits and submitting the piece I was working on earlier this week. That's two weeks in a row so far, so I will admit I'm proud of that. I even picked out an old short story I will be editing this coming week and turning in this coming Friday. And of course I've continued to work on my HerStory stuff, trying to get it all finished and turned in before I have to go back to work. Which got me to thinking about my dog, Maddie.
I know what you're thinking. How does a publication dedicated to praising the accomplishments of Canadian women remind me of my dog? Well, the other day I was working on a profile of a woman, and I honestly wasn't that impressed. Not that she hadn't accomplished a lot, but it just wasn't as comparable to some of the previous women we've done. It didn't help that it was an especially frustrating profile to put together, and at the time I was rather annoyed. As I thought about her accomplishments, I began to compare them to one of my sisters. My sister is an accomplished athlete that counsels young people with eating disorders. I couldn't see what made my subject any more worthwhile. The more annoyed I got, the more I started to compare her to others. Until I even compared her to Maddie. And I decided that not only does my sister deserve a place, but Maddie does too. After all, Maddie is Canadian and female (maybe not human but let's not get too picky), and in my opinion, she's accomplished a lot in her short three years of life.
First of all, Maddie is very active in making her community safer. She participates in the neighbourhood watch, always looking out the window and loudly pointing out suspicious looking strangers. Sure, some of them are children and women with strollers, but really what's more suspicious than unaccompanied children or a women and a mysterious stroller? Her dedication to safety doesn't end there. When we're on walks in the winter, Maddie insists on scratching icy surfaces with her claws, trying to create traction for other pedestrians and cars. My girl always has safety on the brain! But that's not all. Maddie is especially dedicated to the protection of women. Whenever a woman is getting attacked on the tv, Maddie becomes outraged and starts snarling at the screen. So, let's sum up. Community watch, pedestrian safety, protector of women. I think my Maddie has a shot at the history books, don't you?
Okay, I know. I need to get out more. I promise to lead a more interesting life so you won't have to read any more blasphemous comparisons of my dog to heroic Canadian women. But in the meantime, you have to admit, she's pretty accomplished for three. What were you doing at her age? That's right, nothing.

1 comment:

  1. Ha! That's hilarious!! And I think Maddie definitely deserves some recognition!!

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