Not many dogs purr when they’re happy, but Maddie does. It sounds a little like Darth Vader, but it’s her expression of pure bliss and contentment. She’s an athlete and a retriever, and she takes that title seriously, swimming out into the water as far as it takes to fetch a ball and bring it back.

On land, she prefers to chase chipmunks, but so far she’s found them a little harder to catch. Her ideal job would be a bat girl for a baseball team, retrieving bats and fly balls and line drives and bunts, and faithfully returning them all to the dugout.