In the Blink of an Eye Life Changes

Well, I guess I will start at the end. We put Maxwell to sleep last night. As Danielle said it was kind of like a dream you wish you could wake up from. Try a nightmare. He was just the greatest dog. Period. I've had a lot of dogs, and there have been some special ones, but Maxwell was at the top of the list. He was a Jack Russell Terrier Mix, and JR's are usually really high maintenance dogs. Not Maxwell. He was a lap dog. If someone was sitting on the sofa, he climbed up and joined them.

Stephanie's cat loved him. They were around the same age. My Charlie was also one of his best friends. The bigger dogs watched over the little dogs and cats, and just has amazed me what friends they all were. I have had such joy watching them all.

Kristi is a cat person. Boots, her first cat in her adult life has disappeared. Lux, the little cat she has hand raised from a few days....is mental. Maxwell stole her heart. He loved her and Matt, and only an animal lover would understand what he brought to everyone around him. I loved to take pictures of him. He'd look right at the camera with his big soft, brown eyes. Not so Charlie and the cat. Looking back, I almost wonder if he realized how short his life would be, and he was just calmly soaking it all up....and tracking all over the hearts of everyone he met. I'm crying again as I write this, and you probably think I am a real dork. Maybe I am. I lost my 25 year old Love Bird, Fudgie this summer. It was sad, but I did have 25 years with him, so what was to complain about. We lost Little Bud, the family dog, we've had forever. It was time for him to go, even though it was very sad. Maxwell was still a puppy of six months old.

I had Kristi bring him over to socialize him so he wasn't alone. Really, I had her bring him over because I loved having him. The cat and Charlie just came running, and they'd all play when he was here. It was so funny to see my odd little group of Musketeers run out the back door after each other.

I watched Max for Kristi on Wednesday, and around 3 pm or so, he went and laid by the front door waiting for her. She worked late as was getting ready for Parent/Teacher Conferences, and asked if he could spend the night. I remember looking down at him, and thinking how much he was missing her, but said yes he could stay.

I've been keeping the cover on the doggy door, as the cat has been hauling in all kinds of prey--and I'm pretty tired of cleaning up bird feathers, catching birds, and trying to get seriously ugly bugs and lizards out of the house. I got all of the dogs and the cat in the house before going to the eye doctor, as my lens fell out of my glasses sometime in the early afternoon. When I got home, I opened the doggy door, and the regular door, as Maxwell was even afraid of the doggy door after the cover hit him on the head. They'd just been outside a very few minutes when I heard Maxwell crying and we all ran to see what the problem was. I thought at first he had been hurt inside, that the boys had somehow caught him while putting one of the reclining sides of the love seat down. The cat was really worried, he jumped over and wrapped both paws around his friend, but Maxwell yelped and scared the cat and he jumped away...the big dogs were worried and Charlie was upset. We noticed blood all over him, but he wouldn't let us touch him. About that time, Kristi walked in the door. Matt was crying, Kristi took off with the dog. I found some keys and went after her. Finally found her at the Sonoran Emergency Pet Clinic.

Our neighbor to the west of us is renting, and he runs a full blown auto repair business over there. He had one big dog, then recently, another. The dogs liked to run the fence with the dog...and the berm of dirt the fence is built on was getting lower and lower because of the dogs and the gopher holes crashing down. Also, our side of the fence is much higher than the other side, so I have been really concerned about the dogs going under the fence or the big dogs getting over here.

Well, Bill said the dogs (little ones) were over in his yard and have been over there several times. I can see feisty Charlie running over there, but not Maxwell. I think he got bit by one of the dogs, as he had a puncture wound in his abdomen exactly like you would think to a little dog that rolled over in submission and got bit.

The clinic wanted over $3,000 for lab, x-rays, medication, IV and an extensive exploratory surgery they said was needed to see if the bowel or any organs had been punctured. Yep, it was a nightmare, but Arlen, who first said well, I love the dogs but they are dogs...sorry to say I hung up on him, as I was SO frustrated, as have talked and talked about how worried I was about that fence--wanted to reinforce it...and was thinking 3 grand would pay for a lot of fence reinforcing, and an ounce of prevention, etc.

I am really sorry, but I prayed he would be OK, and he wasn't....Kristi made the brave decision to have him put to sleep, as he just had puncture wounds and he was crying even with strong opium based drugs....and he was so scared, and she felt it was going to be more complicated than an easy fix....and her decision gave her peace. She remarked that she hoped she could hang on to some of that peace and remember it when she was missing her little dog. Matt was so upset. He just wanted to try to have his little dog get better. Kristi's good friend Cameron came...Breezy was there to say farewell.

All I can say is it was horrible, unnecessary, and not fair. Just how life is sometimes. There are known steps in grieving and I can truthfully say I've only made it to the sad and anger stage. When my other two pets died, it felt like it was their time. It feels like Maxwell was robbed as well as Kristi and Matt. That is just how I feel. I don't blame Heavenly Father, I just blame the idiot next door with the dogs, his laziness and ours in not securing the fence, and myself for not insisting Kristi take him home, as I KNOW she would have left him home and he wouldn't have ended up dead.

Our little family dog, Freddy we had when I was a teen, who was a little tea cup Poodle snuck out of the yard and was bitten badly by a German Shepherd. We all prayed he'd recover, but he died two days later. I felt the exact same way I do now. I guess I have not learned a thing.

It isn't even a big deal to the guy next door, and he said he doesn't know what happened to the dog, but his dogs would never bite. Marley, the first dog he had, has run out of the backyard on several occasions when the girls were just walking by with Asia and Quigley, and went after Asia, and Asia is a big dog.

We never know what is around the corner. I was really blind sided by this. In the blink of an eye, life changed, and a sweet little dog was gone. Gone, but not forgotten. We will love and remember you forever, Max. Hope to see you again, even if we have to visit dog heaven. Good bye for now, little friend.