Missing My Friend Max

Last week we put our dog Max down. It was heart wrenching to lose my friend of 13+ years. Max has been a reference point of mine on many blog posts. He was a unique animal. He actually had a vocabulary. Note in the video below - bath is not one of his favorite words.

He hated sports. He could not distinguish between good yelling and bad yelling. To him, it was all yelling. He could even tell a game was on (did not matter whether it was basketball, baseball, or football) by people movement on the screen even without any yelling.

Max had strong herding instincts. We believe one of his breeds was some kind of herding dog, maybe a border collie. He understood garbage or mail duty meant it was his job to make sure we got to the curb ok. He made sure there were no threats from some unforeseen source.

Max was never bothered by other dogs. He was a very social dog with a low key demeanor. When confronted by another dog, it was almost like he was saying "whatever".  His eyes seemed to go right through you to your soul.

Max was not perfect - he liked getting into the garbage and licking the floor. But as Deb says, he was self-judging. You would know immediately he had done something he was not supposed to be doing.  You almost felt bad yelling at him about it.

I really learned a lot from my dog Max. But what Max really modeled was complete unconditional love. Max was my friend regardless and he loved Deb and I (Deb was the alpha of the pack, I was just beta) completely. Death sucks as Deb says.

Will pets be in heaven? I won't be dogmatic about it, but I think so. Randy Alcorn's book "Heaven" has a chapter on this topic. It is clear there will be animals in the kingdom and there will be joy like no other. It is not at all hard to fathom that our pet friends will be there too. The Eden like existence prior to the fall pictures animals in a pure state of harmony. I believe I will be reunited with my friend and maybe even we can get the mail together.