Max, We'll Miss You!

Austin and I have heavy hearts tonight as we believe we are about to lose our neighbor dog. Max (who you have seen in pictures previously on our blog) is the neighbor dog that spends about 1/2 of his time at our house. He eats and sleeps down the road at his home and spends his play time here.

The first summer we lived here in Plainville, Max was known as the neighborhood thief. I would hang up clothes on the clothes line, and when I would go to take them down, I'd be missing my clothes pin bucket along with a pair of jeans or two. The "missing" items always turned up somewhere between our house and the neighbors. My parents had come over one time during lambing season, and my dad had left his overalls on the back step as they smelled like lamb afterbirth (disgusting I know). When he got ready to leave, his overalls were gone. They were later found in a field nearby our home.

Some other favorite memories I will always have of Max is that when he would see our car or truck coming down the road, he would follow us home and greet us with slobbery licks and wagging tail. Max was so excited to see what we would get in the mail each day. Teaching Max how to catch a frisbee was definitely a favorite.

Max is nearly paralyzed from his hips down. About a month we attempted to play frisbee with Max and he wasn't interested at all but we didn't think much about it. About three weeks ago Max was having trouble sitting down and getting back up. He wasn't eating much as he didn't want to bend over to eat. Max's owners took him to the Vet and the Vet kept him for two nights, but couldn't find anything wrong with him. Two weeks ago Max walked around, but didn't run too much. He hung around in the evenings and walked with us on Camden's wagon rides. A week ago, we noticed that Max had dropped lots of weight as he wasn't eating much and his owners began to help feed him. He started to cripple even more from his hips down. This past week Max made another visit to the Vet and the Vet can't pinpoint what is happening but he believes in is neurological. Our neighbors are out of town this weekend and we are caring for Max and always do when they are out of town. Tonight we spent some time with Max and instead of Max following Austin back to Max's home for the evening, Austin had to load him in the truck as Max wasn't able to follow Austin on foot. The Max's paralysis may not take his life, we hope that the neighbors make the decision to allow him a peaceful death versus the suffering he is experiencing now.

Max, you are the best dog we've ever known and you will me so missed!