Goodbye to our dear friend, Max
by Rick Crandall
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posted Mar 12 2012 5:46PM
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This is a love story that begins and ends with sadness, but had a whole lot of joy in between.
In April of 1998 I got a call from Dr. Paul Oberbroeckling at the radio station telling me he needed a favor. That weekend a puppy had been brought into the emergency clinic by a woman who just wanted him put to sleep. She said he had “fallen down some stairs and hurt himself” and was just too much trouble. His injuries included broken ribs and he had to be put on oxygen. The injuries suggested much more than just a fall. The clinic staff had the woman sign a release and they administered emergency care. Now Dr. O was calling to see if I could help him find a home. I told him I’d call Diane and be right back in touch with him and when I reached her she simply said, “When can I go get him?” The next day we saw Max for the first time and it was love at first sight…for all of us!!
Max was without question the most loving creature I have ever known in my life. He loved life, and he loved everyone he met. He seemed to know that every day was a gift he almost missed out on and his love knew no good day or bad day, he just always loved. When Diane had her stroke Max would sit and listen as I told him how worried I was about her and what we needed to do to make her better. I snuck him into the hospital one day and I’m convinced when Diane saw how happy he was to see her she started improving on the spot!! When she came home he was always there with her. Always. He was Diane’s companion in the garden during the day where he’d lay for hours while she planted and weeded. He was on the mat next to the tub whenever she took a hot bath and every night he slept at her feet on the bed. When the grandkids were over he’d make a point of licking them all and letting them hug him. When we had parties at the house he’d always be in the middle of it, eyes on the floor waiting for someone to drop something, which they always managed to do!! When I napped, he napped with me. All I had to do is pretend to yawn, and he would beat me to the bed! And more times than not when I sat at this desk in my office at home he’d be on his pillow beside me, when he wasn’t with Diane. Unending love for those that had given him a second chance.
Today, the week of his 14th birthday, Max suffered a seizure that blinded and paralyzed him and we lost him. It would be bad enough if we had just lost our dog, but we lost so much more than that. We lost what was good in life. Let’s face it, times are tough. There’s not much on the news to cheer about. It’s hard at work, it’s hard making ends meet, it’s hard getting older. People seem more interested in yelling at each other and criticizing each other than they do helping each other and loving each other. Max was that in our lives. He was the constant reminder that just being alive and loving those around you mattered more than all the nonsense. What you did and what you made paled in comparison to how you loved. I will, for a long time, desperately miss that. But I will forever be grateful for the love story we shared with Max. God Bless you old bear.
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