Max II

December 13, 2007 – July 2008




I am so sad to be writing this letter to you. We lost Max last week. His remission from the lymphoma was very short lived and we had to put him to sleep because he could barely walk and was vomiting and not eating. He was so sad not to be able to run through the house showing off his babies and wresting with Bela. His final hour was such a testament to who he was. My 2 children (12 and 14) decided they wanted to be with him when he was put down. When we came into the room we all sat on the floor with him, crying and hugging him. He turned to each one of us individually and leaned on us giving us his wonderful soft puppy love. My son had an extra hard time and Max rested his head on my son's shoulder and just let him cry into his neck. After he used up all of his strength he lay down on his blanket with his favorite babies. When they gave him the shot, he just laid his head in my daughters lap, took one more of his blubbery sighs and went to sleep forever. I know he was given to us for such a short time but no one could have loved him more. We are all struggling to adjust to life without him. There is definitely a hole in this home without him to love. Bela is having a very hard time. She scratched at his kennel and wanted in. When she had finished sniffing it she looked at me like "what happened”. She has slept on "his spot" since he has been gone and has been very sad, spending a lot of time just looking mournful, and wanting to be alone in her kennel. We are keeping her busy with runs and dog park trips but she definitely is lost without him.

Bela misses him so much. She found his collar and looked at me with very sad eyes. She refused to play with other dogs at the dog park for a long time. There was one dog there that always sensed Max's submissive nature and would give him a hard time. Now when Bela sees him she just barks at him as if to let him know it was not ok. She has now found a few friends at the dog park, but will not sleep near max's bed and sneaks into bed with us in the middle of the night. I guess we are all now starting to recover. It is hard to believe there will ever be a dog so special. We are truly blessed to have had him touch our life.

Max was happiness on 4 extra long legs. He was only with us for 7 months but he did so much for all of us. He helped Bela overcome her sudden shyness. Any friend of hers was a friend of his. And everyone he met was a friend. My mom had a traumatic brain injury and running with the dogs was my release. The day Max was put down my mother miraculously started to walk again. My husband bonded with Max most of all. He was truly his dog.

Thank you again for all you do. Please also thank his foster mom for making sure he got off on the right foot.

Sadly,

Jodi & Phil