PaDisneyCouple
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2006
I’ve lost the email but can recall the gist of it: “he was a bettor and trainer’s nightmare. When he wanted to run, he won going away. Other times, he just wanted to run with the pack.”
After 16+ hours in a U-Haul van from Florida in 2008, Max became ours. Retired from racing at age 4, after almost 140 races, he transitioned seamlessly into a life of retirement and soft beds. Looking back at the pictures now, he was so dark. Officially a dark brindle, the years changed him to the silver and dark brown of the “stately gentleman” he became.
We never saw him race. Couldn’t even find race videos on the internet. During a trip to the local dog park, we saw what must’ve been race speed. We trotted ahead of him, and he ran up to us happily. We trotted ahead again, and it happened. We heard this sound, like a horse, coming up fast from behind us. And then, his speed instantly doubled. We identified that he had at least 6 gears, from trotting to canter. This was beyond that, and we dubbed it: “Mach 1”. The guy in the corner with the spaniel had 74 pounds of greyhound coming at him at what had to be almost 40 mph. We just stopped and laughed. Then we feared he would hurt himself if he headed into the wooded area of the meadow. But he turned and came back to us. Barely breathing hard. He was happy.
Over the years, we went to a myriad of locations for adoption events: the Pennsylvania Farm Show, Hershey Bears hockey games, Petco, a local garden center, and even a horse racing track. So many people wanted to adopt him right then and there, but he was ours. Max led to many adoptions, including 3 by my parents. As he aged, whenever we ran into our Petco friends, any anxiety melted away, and he became young again.
Spring and fall were Max’s favorite seasons to run. That is what led us to start running ourselves. Of course, we couldn’t keep up with him if he really tried. No human could. We could get to about 3rd gear on him. This is what led to my first Garmin. But the pace usually went up so fast, it couldn’t keep up. I know we were sub 8-minute mile pace. And each gear was several factors faster than the one before. He was just legging it out happily, not even mouth breathing yet, and we were saying “easy, easy”, our command to slow down.
Summer and winter were not excluded from his fun. He loved to lay in the sun in both seasons. We had to sunscreen him and put him on a timer when he went outside in the heat of the summer. He loved the frozen puppy pops Christine made him. The winter also brought out sunshine time. This was on a fluffy bed, on the deck, while wearing one of his many coats. But winter also brought out “snow silliness”. He would bounce, pounce, and play in the snow. Often, you’d see only a handful of patches of disturbed snow between the farthest reaches of the yard and the deck. Such was the incredible length of his stride when he was stretched out in flight. It was during a moment of calm snow sniffing when we got the photo that landed him on the cover of a magazine that celebrated the breed.
The years were kind to Max until 2018. Afflicted with corns for many years, he would willingly let us remove them for him. He came to us around 6:30pm every night for “chicken stick”, when we would brush his teeth. Most months, we brushed them 100% of the time. He would even try to trick us into a 2nd brushing by the one who did not do the first. He didn’t know we kept a detailed journal of every one of his 3885 days with us. They fill 10 volumes across 10 ½ years in our family.
In the summer of 2018, a lump was discovered inside his left upper lip. It was lymphoma. We had it surgically removed, but it had already spread. This, plus lumbar stenosis effecting his rear legs, slowly took away many of the things that made him Max over the last decade-plus. His condition worsened the week of Thanksgiving. Christine and I took turns sleeping on an air mattress in the family room with him, since he could no longer go upstairs. Our Petco friends set up a final get-together on 12/9. We saw such positive things from Max that day. It encouraged us that he might make it to Christmas, or the New Year. But it was not to be. We made the decision that it was time on 12/19 and set him free at home on 12/22/18. He rested his head on fleece man, the same one Christine held as he got out of the U-Haul in 2008. Stuffy sheep, a pillow-pet and his favorite toy, was next to him. Every morning for almost 10 years, he took stuffy sheep from the master bedroom down the hall to “mommy’s office” for the day.
So, why is this memorial here? First, he was a professional runner. Second, he outlived the magazine he graced the cover of. Inside the back cover of each issue, they featured those who crossed the rainbow bridge and had appeared in a prior issue. But the magazine ceased. Third, many years ago, Webmaster Corey approved my request to ask the DIS community to vote for Max’s adoption group in a contest to win money to continue their mission.
Lastly, this is here because Max led us to you. We never considered running. The DCL forum was where we spent our DIS time. Then we decided we wanted to run. This ultimately led us to runDisney events and the WISH forum, which then became the runDisney forum. Now, Christine and I have both completed races up to, and including, half marathons. And Max has completed his final race.
Max is my buddy. Max will always be my buddy.
After 16+ hours in a U-Haul van from Florida in 2008, Max became ours. Retired from racing at age 4, after almost 140 races, he transitioned seamlessly into a life of retirement and soft beds. Looking back at the pictures now, he was so dark. Officially a dark brindle, the years changed him to the silver and dark brown of the “stately gentleman” he became.
We never saw him race. Couldn’t even find race videos on the internet. During a trip to the local dog park, we saw what must’ve been race speed. We trotted ahead of him, and he ran up to us happily. We trotted ahead again, and it happened. We heard this sound, like a horse, coming up fast from behind us. And then, his speed instantly doubled. We identified that he had at least 6 gears, from trotting to canter. This was beyond that, and we dubbed it: “Mach 1”. The guy in the corner with the spaniel had 74 pounds of greyhound coming at him at what had to be almost 40 mph. We just stopped and laughed. Then we feared he would hurt himself if he headed into the wooded area of the meadow. But he turned and came back to us. Barely breathing hard. He was happy.
Over the years, we went to a myriad of locations for adoption events: the Pennsylvania Farm Show, Hershey Bears hockey games, Petco, a local garden center, and even a horse racing track. So many people wanted to adopt him right then and there, but he was ours. Max led to many adoptions, including 3 by my parents. As he aged, whenever we ran into our Petco friends, any anxiety melted away, and he became young again.
Spring and fall were Max’s favorite seasons to run. That is what led us to start running ourselves. Of course, we couldn’t keep up with him if he really tried. No human could. We could get to about 3rd gear on him. This is what led to my first Garmin. But the pace usually went up so fast, it couldn’t keep up. I know we were sub 8-minute mile pace. And each gear was several factors faster than the one before. He was just legging it out happily, not even mouth breathing yet, and we were saying “easy, easy”, our command to slow down.
Summer and winter were not excluded from his fun. He loved to lay in the sun in both seasons. We had to sunscreen him and put him on a timer when he went outside in the heat of the summer. He loved the frozen puppy pops Christine made him. The winter also brought out sunshine time. This was on a fluffy bed, on the deck, while wearing one of his many coats. But winter also brought out “snow silliness”. He would bounce, pounce, and play in the snow. Often, you’d see only a handful of patches of disturbed snow between the farthest reaches of the yard and the deck. Such was the incredible length of his stride when he was stretched out in flight. It was during a moment of calm snow sniffing when we got the photo that landed him on the cover of a magazine that celebrated the breed.
The years were kind to Max until 2018. Afflicted with corns for many years, he would willingly let us remove them for him. He came to us around 6:30pm every night for “chicken stick”, when we would brush his teeth. Most months, we brushed them 100% of the time. He would even try to trick us into a 2nd brushing by the one who did not do the first. He didn’t know we kept a detailed journal of every one of his 3885 days with us. They fill 10 volumes across 10 ½ years in our family.
In the summer of 2018, a lump was discovered inside his left upper lip. It was lymphoma. We had it surgically removed, but it had already spread. This, plus lumbar stenosis effecting his rear legs, slowly took away many of the things that made him Max over the last decade-plus. His condition worsened the week of Thanksgiving. Christine and I took turns sleeping on an air mattress in the family room with him, since he could no longer go upstairs. Our Petco friends set up a final get-together on 12/9. We saw such positive things from Max that day. It encouraged us that he might make it to Christmas, or the New Year. But it was not to be. We made the decision that it was time on 12/19 and set him free at home on 12/22/18. He rested his head on fleece man, the same one Christine held as he got out of the U-Haul in 2008. Stuffy sheep, a pillow-pet and his favorite toy, was next to him. Every morning for almost 10 years, he took stuffy sheep from the master bedroom down the hall to “mommy’s office” for the day.
So, why is this memorial here? First, he was a professional runner. Second, he outlived the magazine he graced the cover of. Inside the back cover of each issue, they featured those who crossed the rainbow bridge and had appeared in a prior issue. But the magazine ceased. Third, many years ago, Webmaster Corey approved my request to ask the DIS community to vote for Max’s adoption group in a contest to win money to continue their mission.
Lastly, this is here because Max led us to you. We never considered running. The DCL forum was where we spent our DIS time. Then we decided we wanted to run. This ultimately led us to runDisney events and the WISH forum, which then became the runDisney forum. Now, Christine and I have both completed races up to, and including, half marathons. And Max has completed his final race.
Max is my buddy. Max will always be my buddy.
