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oh my max

We adopted Max in 2002. I fell madly in love with him when we went to "just look" at the humane society in St. Cloud, Minnesota. It must have been the combination of him being an awesome dog, and the fact that I was so, so homesick for my family and friends. Anyway, I loved him, and Dave and I adopted him.

He is smart and terribly, terribly naughty. His nose and beagle appetite gets him into all kinds of trouble. We put our trash can on a counter when we leave the house. Our kids rooms have always had gates on them so he doesn't go in and eat diapers (yes, diapers. Ew!), our kitties have to jump to a high table for their food and to use the litterbox, because he will definitely eat their food, and, yes... even whats in the litterbox.

We have had plenty of christmas gifts broken into, because all wrapped up we didnt realize they were lovely baked things, which he ripped right into and ate while we were out. He once tipped a candy dish and peeled all the tootsie pop wrappers off with his teeth and left a little pile of trash and no candy.

About a week ago he astounded us by managing to OPEN THE OVEN to get to some treats (the oven was off, we stored some stuff inside to keep him from knocking it off the counter and eating it)

anyway, despite his constant shedding, eating of disgusting things, and having no self control whatsoever regarding choosing whether or not to follow his nose, we love him. that's why we have been SO SAD the last few days as max has taken to laying around the house. moving only when we move him or ask him to and generally just seeming sad and uncomfortable. he was eating and pooping so we waited out the weekend but dave and i finally gave in and called the vet this morning, when we found him out in the doghouse (its freezing cold), sad but apparently not able to come back through the doggy door.

We left him at the clinic for testing and got a call a few hours later. After a lot of morphine he was feeling much better, but apparently was having a complication from intervertebral degenerative disk disease, common in several breeds, including beagles. Well, now we know. Treatment for now is basically pain killers, steroids and rest.

He seems to be feeling better already, and I'm sure he'll continue to improve. Hooray!