My Sweet Max

by Candi Thomas
(Parker, Colorado)

It's amazing, how a dog - who can't even speak, but somehow understands every word you say. That dog, finds a way into your soul and makes everything in your life happy and free.

That dog was my Max. A present from my husband a month before our son was born, I spent 12 glorious years with my black lab. He was happy just being with us, it didn't matter what we were doing. He was always there. He loved us unconditionally, and made sure we knew it everyday.

We noticed a lump on his shoulder in November of 2009. We took him in, and they vet diagnosed it as a fatty tumur.

As the months went by, we noticed that the lump was getting bigger. We took him in again at the beginning of April 2010, and it was again diagnosed as a fatty tumur. We had blood test performed, and it was decided that the lump had to come out in order for Max to live a confortable 2-3 more years, (at least that is what I was hopping for).

As the vet operated on my beloved Max, it was discovered that the tumur was twice the size on the inside of my dog. It was a very agressive blood cancer.

The reason why it was misdiagnosed, twice was it was so large, there was not a needle large enough to aspirate it correctly. My love dog, woke up from surgery, I was able to see him, but passed away during the night.

After the vet tested the tumur - he sat us down and told us that if they had been able to diagnose the tumur correctly in November, they would have told us that Max had 6 - 8 weeks to live. We lost Max on April 24th, 2010. We like to think he loved us SO much, he lived with pain just to stay with us for as long as he could. He didn't want to leave.

We miss Maxwell with all of our hearts. He trained us to be good dog owners and just to live life and be happy.