Author: Sierra

Max was a Golden Retriever that we recieved from a family friend. I got to pick him out from a litter of about 10. He was sitting in the corner by himself and very sad looking so of course, I had to pick him. From the very first moment he was a family dog. No matter what my 10 month old little brother did to him he just ignored it and kept doing what he was doing. He was such a sweet dog and could always sense when you were down and he would stand by your side.

He was so beautiful, gold and red and he was big. He had the biggest butt I have ever seen on a dog LOL. When he was 8 years old or there abouts, he developed a sore on his snout. We disregarded it at first thinking it was nothing more then where he had hurt himself. But it never went away.

When we finally took him to the vet, they took a biopsy. The news was the worst, he had a cancer. The vet told us it was very slow spreading and he had a while to live. He was more wrong then we all imagined. Max started to become more ill and you could tell he didn’t feel very good. He never complained though, he was always happy and didn’t act like he was in any pain.

The cancer spread to his lymph within 2 months and it went downhill very fast. His neck had a mass larger then a baseball in it. Max was starting to have a rougher time breathing and we all knew his time was coming. It was the hardest decision we ever made to put him down.

I’ll never forget the day though. Before I left for school I hugged him and told him he was an awesome dog and he would be missed for an eternity. He was to be put to sleep around 10 am. I came home from school and my father was waiting for me. I knew he had been put down but I refused to want to believe it. My dad told me that Max was happy right to the end. My dad also admitted that he started crying when they did it.

He couldnt stand the thought of losing our Max. On November 12th, 2001, our sweet Max went off to a better place without pain. Our pain is still more raw then ever. We have another dog now, and it makes me so upset to think that I am going to lose the memory of Max. Whenever I try to remember him I see our new dog. I know it is normal to move on but I don’t want to. I want my Max back, just to pet him and kiss him one more time. Max was the greatest dog. Never will there be another dog as good, sweet, kind, or caring as he was.