Tribute to Maximus

For those of you who know my husband he is an avid hunter. Therefore, we own a couple hunting dogs. In March Payton became the proud owner of 8 Lab puppies - which he seemed very hesitant to let go to other homes. A number of them stayed within the local area and went to awesome homes where we know the owners will take great care of them. However, one of them hadn't found a home yet so he had to come and live with us. It didn't take long and the boys grew fond of him and loved to play catch with him. Soon after we came up with a perfect name for him ~ Maximus (Max for short). Brooks couldn't wait to feed the "puppas" in the morning and when the daycare kids would leave. He knew their bowls, how much they got, etc. He never let me forget that they needed to be fed twice a day. (May I remind you Brooks is only 23 months).

As you can tell by the title this story doesn't have a very happy ending. Thursday - instead of running into his kennel after his supper - he quickly dodged past me and went towards the road (which the last couple of days he had gone across to the neighbors ~ naughty). At that same moment our neighbor across the street was also coming home from work - I saw her and saw him however figured that one or both of them would stop. Before I knew it he went under the front of her car and didn't come out until he got to the back end. The worse part yet - Payton is standing right at the kennel with me and watching this horrific scene with his own eyes. Max slowly made it back to the kennel - however obviously he had a wounded leg (if not more).

Not knowing what to do, as Craig left that morning for 4 days on a fishing trip, I called my in-laws as they too have dogs and would know exactly what to do. Bev quickly came over and brought him out to the vet - in the mean time I called Craig to tell him what's going on. Phone calls are exchanged for the next 1/2 hour between me, the vet, Craig, Craig and the Vet, Bev, etc... One of the last phone calls that I got came from Craig to inform me that Max had to be put to sleep. His back leg was damaged beyond repair as well as broken rib(s) that more than likely punctured some organs/tissue.

Before I knew it Payton was out of sight - I walked around the house looking for him. I finally found him in the basement shedding tears. He was so hurt that he wouldn't even talk to his Dad on the phone until the next afternoon. All night Thursday he just cried and cried. The only thing he had on his mind was that he wanted to see Max and help his Gpa Doug bury him.

I helped Payton to gather his feelings and we then went over Gma Bev's and Gpa Doug's to pay our last respects for Max. Payton headed right for the garage knowing that Max would be in there - Gma took him to see him one last time. When Gpa came home we went out to the lake and Payton helped his to bury Max with the other family dogs. This was also one of the worst things to see Payton go through. In a way I wish I had a camera as it's such an awesome view as it over looks a lake. Before leaving town Payton was asking Gma what Max would be buried in Payton didn't want to just lay him in the ground he felt he needed a blanket so Payton layed a blanket down for him and Gpa had him wrapped up in one too. Payton helped to push the dirt back in and while standing there you could see he was getting emotional again - he turned and had "dirt tear tracks" down his face. It has been so hard to see him this way of course all I can do is cry too. He was such a big man though and handled it like a trooper. Once he was done Gpa made a quick cross for him to put in and of course to make me cry even worse - Gpa held the cross while Payton pounded it into the ground with an ax. I didn't even know he could hold and work something so big. He was so proud of what he did and I can't wait for him to show his dad what he did to take care of Max.

As I am updating this (Monday) Payton is bringing his Dad out to show where Max was buried and to complete the cross that was made for Max.

Boobley's litter of 8 puppies (3.15.08)

Boobley (left) & Maximus (right)