To the Max

When I first met Maxine it was under very adverse conditions. We received a phone call. Someone had found a small dog who had been hit by a car on State Route 122. They were giving “it” water but they planned on doing little else. So they asked if we could help.

So I went up to that little house on Rt. 122. I scooped her up in my arms and took her straight to our Vet’s office. You see, I really wanted nothing to do with little dogs. Sure, they were okay for other people. But we were Golden Retriever snobs. Goldens were our breed of choice, and we were sticking to it. That is. Until I met Max. She won my heart in a very short time.

On that day Maxine taught me a valuable lesson. In the next 17 years, she would go on teaching me.

And now she is gone.

Our dear sweet Max went peacefully to sleep today. I held her in my arms. She nestled her head hard into my chest, in the Emergency Vet Med in Dayton. Both of us were scared. We were in a place neither one of us knew. But we had each other.

My sorrow is deeper than I had imagined it would be. Sure. I knew this day was coming. Seventeen years is pretty old for a dog. Even still, I just didn’t see it coming.

She was my friend and my family. I owe her so very much.  Time and again, she gave and asked nothing in return. Our dear sweet girl. I will never forget that beautiful little Max.

 

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“It’s so much darker when a light goes out than it would have been if it had never shone.” 
― John Steinbeck, The Winter of Our Discontent

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“Where you used to be, there is a hole in the world, which I find myself constantly walking around in the daytime, and falling in at night. I miss you like hell.” 
― Edna St. Vincent Millay

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What is lovely never dies, but passes into other loveliness.
— Unknown

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