God Speed, Little Man

Well today, Jan 21, 2008 @ 2:20 PM Maxx went on to be with Father God. It was a sad event with both my wife and I shedding a boat load of tears but in the end we are at peace.

My wife and I took Little Man and his sister (well not by blood but they lived and played together for nine years) to the nature preserve closest to our house and walked about a half a mile of trails. I realize it was not a lot but it was about all Maxx could handle. He fell twice and was pretty much out of steam by the time we got back to the car. After our little jaunt in the nature preserve, we drove over to Einstein Brothers Bagels in Plano and picked up a few to snack on in the park. Maxx was exhausted and slept while his sister bounced around looking at everyone and everything. After munching on bagels and cracking jokes about our tax dollars hard at work (state/city/county employees were fixing a broken sidewalk and not moving very fast) we headed back to the house. Maxx had already moved more in one day than he had in all of last week combined.

After he slept for a while we prayed over him and ourselves. This was especially hard on me since I had never put an animal down before. After some time praying (and weeping), we headed off to the vet to send little man on his way.

We arrived and had to wait a little but Maxx was calm. Most dogs freak out because they can smell the death. Not Maxx. He let me put him on the table and did not try to nip the vet at all. The vet gave him the first injection (to put him to sleep) and in a matter of minutes, Maxx was completely relaxed and slumbering. Our vet gave us some time as we said our good-byes and then he administered the final drug to stop his heart. Maxx started breathing very heavily for a few seconds and then he drifted off. I felt for a heart beat but could not find one and the vet confirmed that he was gone. Fighting back the tears, we thanked the vet and left.

After we had drive a few hundred yards, we decided to pull over to the park across the street from our house. We started walking down an old trail and performed some cache maintenance on one of mine that had gone missing. Sure enough it was gone so I replaced it with one I had ready. After that we headed towards the shelter and thought back to happier times with our loveable mutt. We were no longer weepy and we decided to head home.

When we came in the house felt empty, even with our other dog and the one we are pet sitting there. The spirit of Maxx filled the house even when he slept. He will be missed.

Well, I have updated Facebook and now I need to update my caching page. Once that is done we need to get ready for small group tonight.

For those who are praying, thank you. Your prayers are really appreciated.