CENTENNIAL - There's a shrine on a backyard fence dedicated to a dog, a testament to how special she was, not only to her family, but an entire neighborhood.

That's because she wasn't just any dog. She was Maggie, a black-and-white border collie who delighted passers-by and other dogs as she guarded the top of that fence, which was as much hers as the family that got her six years ago.

"Maggie the Wonder Dog, who walked on fences," said owner Terry Egan.

When Egan and his family went to buy Maggie from a breeder in Elizabeth, her initial name was Star because of a white marking on her forehead.

She really was a star.

She'd trot back and forth atop the wooden fence, barking, letting people and other dogs know that she had her eye on them as they traveled along the greenbelt walk near South Holly Street and East County Line Road.

"I'd sit on my deck at night," Egan said. "And every once in a while, a car would come by. It would go slower and slower and then stop. Then a big flashbulb would go off."

Maggie usually stayed on top of the fence, which had a partition tacked onto it to mark the border where she had to stop. But on a Sunday two weeks ago, she jumped down to chase a motorcycle.

That motorcycle would drive her crazy," Egan said. "She'd jump down once in a while and run maybe 30 or 40 feet."

She ran farther this last time, and was hit by a passing car.

At the time, Egan was on his deck, reading the newspaper. A passer-by went to his fence to tell him his dog had been hit. A neighbor came to his front door to tell him the same.

"I raced out my front door, practically knocking my neighbor over," Egan said.

He loaded Maggie into his car and took her to a 24-hour animal hospital. She didn't make it. "They even tried to resuscitate her," Egan said.

Egan's youngest child, Sarah, crafted and laminated a poster with Maggie's photo on it. "In Memory of Maggie," it says.

People have left flowers and cards, letters and pictures.

"We must have had 100 cards and letters and phone calls from people," Terry Egan said. "That really helped us get through it a lot."

The dog made an impression on a lot of people.

A big, burly maintenance man pulled up in front of the home in his truck, Egan said.

"He could hardly talk. He gave me a picture he'd taken of Maggie on top of the fence. " 'We loved that dog,' he said."

When Maggie was a pup, she'd crouch low in the lawn, crawling the way a border collie does while on guard.

On regular walks with Maggie, Egan would take a pocketful of dog treats for other dogs, who'd come to their fences and wag their tails.

"The other day, I grabbed a lot of treats and walked where I used to walk Maggie," Egan said. "Only two dogs came running to the fence. It was as if the others sensed she was no longer there."

Maybe Egan and his wife, Susan, and Sarah and her brother, Sean, an Arapahoe High School senior, will get another dog.

"Everyone is wanting to take our time," Terry Egan said. "Probably three or four months from now, there will probably be another wiggle butt out there in the grass."

massarog@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5271

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