My throat hurts... thats wordless, right?
Today I decided to grab a picture from a few years back. This one isn't Saki, the golden that fills the pages of this blog now. This is Max, who isn't even a golden retriever, believe it or not. He was a German Shepard mix. Mix with a retriever, I'm sure, although the farm I got him from said it was a lab mix. Yeah right. His mom was Shepard though.. Max became quite close with a Rottweiler we had and they had a litter of puppies. Max threw some Shepard ones into the mix LOL
Max was my "first born", thats what I called him. I got him when he was 8 weeks old, before I had children of my own. I answered an ad in the paper that was for German Shepard puppies. I've always wanted a Shepard. I went to this farm and there were a lot of pure black pups, some brown, nothing that caught my attention. The owners said there was a puppy missing, that it was usually off on its own.
Thats when this big ball of golden fur crawled out from underneath a shed door. His legs were so short and he was such a puffball that you couldn't see his legs when he ran. He was running right towards me... and stopped right in my arms. Maxwell found me that day and he was by my side for over 11 years when I had to make the painful decision to put him down. He was my baby, my best friend and no matter how hard Saki tries, she will never take Max's place. She tries to give me "Max hugs"; puts her paws up on my shoulders and I say "No Saki, no Max hugs! Only Max gave Max hugs!". So she's learned that "Saki hugs" are just digging her nose between my neck and shoulders.
She will not fill that place Maxwell has in my heart.
Anyway, the reason for this picture is because Big Boy & Max were the best of buds. Saki is pretty hyper with the cats now, but we are noticing that BB is getting more tolerant everyday. Yesterday the husband caught BB getting a tongue bath from Saki and made no motion to get out of the situation.
Does BB remember Max? Who knows... thats always a question I've wondered about animals. Some people say they don't have memories. I just don't know if I can believe that or not. But, if they do, I wonder if BB sees something familiar in Saki and is hoping that, maybe, he can get his best bud back through her?
