After nearly a decade of exemplary service as a comfort dog in Newtown, Maggie the golden retriever has retired with her forever family and canine companion to Florida.

Maggie’s contribution of gentle love and kindness in town began shortly after the Sandy Hook Elementary School (SHES) shooting on December 14, 2012 (12/14).

At the time Maggie, and her sister Addie, were newly trained K-9 Comfort Dogs with Lutheran Church Charities (LCC) and not even a year old.

The sisters met the community for the first time at Christ the King Lutheran Church, 85 Mt Pleasant Road, just two days after the tragedy.

Newtown resident Cathy Reiss, who later became Maggie’s lead handler, recalls the moment she witnessed the powerful healing comfort dogs bring.

“There were about half a dozen dogs in our Fellowship Hall to meet us after church. At the time, I had a son in seventh grade and a daughter who was a junior in high school. Both personally knew some of the victims. They walked into that room and joy came on their face and they just sat down and pet the dogs. As a mom, I knew this was a good thing. I got to see them smile, to forget for a moment,” she recalled.

After that first assignment in Newtown, Maggie and her fellow comfort dogs had the important job of being there for the children and staff of SHES when the school temporarily relocated in Monroe following the shootings.

With a community still hurting and healing, the LCC K-9 Comfort Dogs had a busy schedule visiting those in need in addition to regularly visiting the church every Sunday morning.

“Lutheran Church Charities had different people coming in and out to Newtown. They were here a couple months and the main people said, ‘We have to go now. We see there is still a need, so we can leave Maggie and Addie behind, and we can train some of you,’” Reiss said.

Immanuel Lutheran Church in Danbury adopted Addie in August 2013. Christ the King Lutheran Church adopted Maggie the following month over Labor Day weekend.

When the church needed someone to coordinate Maggie’s complex assignment calendar, Reiss offered to fill that volunteer position.

Her duties not only entailed creating Maggie’s calendar based on the incoming requests for visits and handler availability, but she also took part in handler meetings, refresher trainings at Cassio Pet Resort & Training Center, and handled communication with different media outlets.

When Maggie was featured in the book Extraordinary Dogs by John Schlimm and Liz Stavrinides in 2019, it was Reiss who was in charge of contributing her personal sentiments on behalf of Maggie. SHES alumna Paige Tarpey lent her art skills for the book’s illustration and drew a picture of Maggie.

Meanwhile, Maggie’s team also included Ken Fay who was a handler, ran her social media account, and produced the Emmy award winning mini-documentary Wags ‘n’ Tales about Maggie and Addie.

At one point, Maggie had up to 16 trained handlers who would take her to events.

‘Near And Far’ Assignments

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Maggie regularly visited a plethora of places. In addition to her “home” church and SHES, she went to Newtown Middle School, Newtown High School (NHS), Hawley Elementary School, Families United in Newtown (FUN) events, Danbury Hospital, Yale-New Haven Psychiatric Hospital, VA Connecticut Healthcare System West Haven Campus’ cancer ward, Almost Home Adult Daycare, and Village Crest Nursing Home.

She also lent a helping paw with local organizations, including, but not limited to, C.H. Booth Library, Newtown Parks & Recreation, Nunnawauk Meadows Independent Living, Collin George Whitmore Foundation, Newtown Kindness, Ben’s Lighthouse, Pony Rides for Jessica Rekos, Newtown Earth Day Festival, Honan Funeral Home, Newtown Labor Day Parade, and The Resiliency Center of Newtown for various events.

Maggie helped with grief support at Ridgefield High School, Children’s Community School in Waterbury, Mahopac Middle School/High School in New York; as well as health fairs at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, University of Connecticut in Waterbury, and R.M.T. Johnson Elementary School in Bethel, just to name a few.

If that was not enough, she also attended “Story Time with Maggie” at New Fairfield Public Library, a Lunch & Learn with O&G Industries in Torrington, a Passing of the Leash ceremony at Messiah Lutheran Church in Massachusetts, a drive-through prayer event at Christ Lutheran Church in Massachusetts, and many other special gatherings.

Her nationwide outreach even extended to Texas in 2017 after the state was devastated by Hurricane Harvey. Maggie was deployed for round-the-clock work and traveled with one of her main handlers, Lori Flandreau, and Christ the King Lutheran Church Pastor Rob Morris.

“We never went anywhere unless we were invited, so as you can see, we had many invitations — near and far,” Reiss said.

Caregivers Contributions

Pastor Morris also had the opportunity of being Maggie’s primary caregiver throughout most of her years in Newtown. After being officially adopted by Christ the King Lutheran Church, Maggie began living with his family at the parsonage.

“When the comfort dogs first came to Newtown after the 12/14 shootings, I was a skeptic. For exactly four days. My skepticism ended the following Tuesday evening,” he said.

Pastor Morris recalls how he witnessed a class of about 20 students at the church be brought together in a moment of peace through petting the comfort dogs.

“I remained on the fence about entering into comfort dog ministry for exactly four months. It was four months until April 15, 2013, when the Boston bombings took place,” he shared, then added that he has many personal connections to Boston and to the marathon that day.

He realized the Boston community could benefit from the comfort dogs just like Newtown had.

“It was finally clear to me that these highly-trained, and carefully led dogs could provide love and care in a way that people could not,” Pastor Morris said.

Over the course of the next nine years, he got to see Maggie’s skills in action.

“After suicides and violent attacks and unexpected deaths; during more mundane events like stressful finals or move-up day to a new school; at countless bedsides and in countless classrooms, someone’s day would get a bit brighter, their breathing a bit easier, and their smile a bit broader because of a golden retriever’s eager love,” he said.

Reiss noted that the job of caretaker for a comfort dog is a full-time responsibility.

“It was very gracious for them to accept that. Not only are you taking care of a well-trained dog and making sure she doesn’t do things that she isn’t supposed to, like jumping on the couch or jumping on people, but you’ve got people coming and in out of your house all the time to pick up the dog and bring the dog back,” she explained.

When COVID-19 restrictions took place, it halted what the comfort dog ministry could do in terms of going places. It also changed day-to-day life for Pastor Morris’s family, whose children began remote learning.

“So, Maggie went to the backup caregiver, who has asthma and allergies. She had Maggie for different periods of time and was fine, but when Maggie was there for that length of time, she found out that she really reacted to her,” Reiss said.

Maggie then went to live with Flandreau, who became her new caregiver during the pandemic.

After being with the family throughout 2021, Flandreau informed the Comfort Dog Team that her family needed to move to Florida for her husband’s work.

Flandreau also made an unexpected offer, however. She acknowledged Maggie’s advanced age, how the comfort dog ministry had been limited for what could be done during the pandemic, and she said her family would be happy to have Maggie move with them and retire to Florida.

“We thought about it and brought it to the church council to discuss. All signs pointed to that being the right thing to do for Maggie,” Reiss said.

Retirement Decision

On November 15, 2021, Christ the King Lutheran Church’s Newtown Comfort Team made the official announcement on Maggie’s Facebook page about her retirement.

It reads in part, “It is with deep gratitude and thanksgiving that we announce the retirement of Maggie Comfort Dog from active service in Christ the King’s Newtown Comfort ministry, which was an affiliate of Lutheran Church Charities K-9 Comfort Dog Ministry.

“Maggie has certainly been a blessing to us and to so many over the years. The hope, compassion, and light she brought us will never diminish. Let us not forget the lessons that the Lord has taught us through her service: that we are never alone in our troubles, that the Lord will always come to those who are brokenhearted, and that we are loved more than we can imagine!”

Maggie is in good health and will now live out her life with her forever family — Lori and Ted Flandreau, their daughter Grace, and their dog Marty.

“She loves the family and her little brother Marty,” Reiss said.

The family even celebrated Maggie’s tenth birthday in style on January 3, 2022, by giving her a pup-safe cake with dog biscuits and lots of fun toys to play with.

Reiss has received updates from the family showing that Maggie is living in the lap of luxury by spending her time swimming and soaking up the Florida sunshine — a well-deserved retirement that any person would dream of having.

Upcoming Celebration

Since Maggie has left such an impression on the Newtown community, Christ the King Lutheran Church will be hosting a Celebration of Ministry for her in the Spring. It will be Maggie’s formal retirement party and give the public an opportunity to thank her for her service.

Reiss also mentions in addition to Maggie’s wonderful work, it truly is a team effort to do the comfort dog ministry.

“We couldn’t have done this for nine-plus years without the very dedicated group of handlers we had … they stuck with it. We had people move, people with illnesses — it’s a tough job. There were some tough assignments,” she said.

Reiss added, “We feel blessed that our community put their trust in us to serve them all these years. It was an honor.”

Since there will always be a need for comfort dogs, Maggie has passed the metaphorical baton to her sister Addie, who is doing some local work in her semi-retirement. Another dog, Leah, from Immanuel Lutheran Church, is also serving Newtown including visits to Newtown High School during stressful times for students’ test taking.

Pastor Morris shared, “As Christians, we are taught to love our neighbor just as Christ loved us. I learned that sometimes, that love arrives much more easily on four legs than on two. I will always be grateful for the opportunities that arose to love and care for others in need just because a beautiful, blue-vested golden retriever was walking at the end of the leash.”

To follow Maggie’s retirement adventures, visit facebook.com/people/Maggie-Sunshine-Retirement. Also, learn more about her past work by visiting facebook.com/MaggieComfortDog.

Reporter Alissa Silber can be reached at alissa@thebee.com.