Max
This past Thanksgiving weekend, 2007, Max came to join our family. Max
was a neighborhood cat that we would see out and about from time to time.
This particular weekend was a extremely cold in the Vancouver area, and Max
was out looking for warmth, love and definitely for FOOD and water!
:-) We opened our garage to take garbage out and we heard this little
weak cry, and there was Max running straight for our garage! We called
him in, wrapped him in a blanket and pondered our next move.
We brought Max in and fed him (three bowls, no less, of food) and he drank a
lot of water. We could tell that he had been "living on the streets"
for most of his young life. He was a beautiful boy with unique
markings of a tiger-striped tabby! We figured he was still a kitten
with his playfulness. We walked the neighborhood looking for possible
owners and we reported our "find" to the local humane society in case he had
owners who were looking for him. After that weekend, with no one
following up with us, we decided that Max was our newest family member!
We have six other furry family members, all feline, and one Dachshund,
Rosie, so until we knew that Max was "disease free", we made him a bed in
our heated garage that weekend (although we would sneak him in the house
wrapped in a blanket and hold him and talk to him).
That following Monday, when our veterinary clinic opened, we took Max in for
a check-up. We got his shots and they told us that he appeared to be a
very healthy, 8-month (approximate) old boy. We had him neutered later
that week and he came to be "Max Mauer".
Max certainly brought life to our other feline family members, and to us as
well. He would play and play, eat, and he loved to be held and talked
to while rubbing between his ears. He had the loudest purr and we just
adored him. We couldn't wait to see what he would look like "all grown
up" as he had the biggest paws, long tail with perfect markings, and the
sweetest face!!
Little did we know that God's plan for Max was to touch our lives for just a
short month. On December 26th we woke to find Max breathing heavily
and gasping. What could be wrong? He was just helping us wrap
presents earlier that week, playing and loving like usual, so we had no idea
what ailed him! We rushed him to the vet that morning, as his
conditioned declined rapidly. We had to make an agonizing decision to
put him to sleep within just an hour as they determined that his lungs were
filled with fluid and his heart enlarged. Apparently Max had a heart
condition that we didn't know about, which we realize now that he was born
with.
We wept and wept and to this day, there's not a moment that goes by that we
don't think of Max and how that little boy touched our lives, if only for
one month and three days!! We like to think that we gave him the best
last month he could have as he went from being a "street kitty" to being
loved, fed, warm, had his own toy box, his own human to sleep on/with, and
boy was he SPOILED!! However, it was us that was spoiled by him and
his affection. We will forever remember Max and we miss him
terribly....
Stella M. and Melody R.
