My Max

Last night I talked about my friend Mike's sweet Savannah. Here is a photo of my buddy Max. This photo was taken several years ago when my ex and I were visiting Pendleton. It was taken in the garden outside the back door of the house. About 2 feet to the right of where this photo ends is where Max is at rest today. He died 7 years to the day after our move to Pendleton. Max was a wonderful friend and companion. Some nights I am sure he is curled up on my feet in bed as he did for a good part of his 18 years. I still miss him today. We had some nick-names for him like 'Tubby Tuna' he was 23 pounds at his heaviest, the vet even had to weigh him on the dog scale! And when we got him they said he was the runt of the litter and would stay small... I can't imagine what his siblings looked like fully grown! I can still remember the day we got him. We had to put down our previous cat Samantha the day before because she was so very sick with Diabetes (the worst the vet had ever seen). Our hearts and home were so empty, we searched for a new kitten. We ended up travelling 75 miles to Rochester, NY (we were living in Alfred, NY at the time) to a pet store where they had 4 kittens. 2 were orange tabbys and 2 were grey/black tabbys. Max was on top of the cat tower and the others were down below. We fell in love with his beautiful swirled markings and his white paws, not o mention his bold personality. On our way home in the car, we tried to decide on a name for him. We tried several and none seemed to fit. I had some t-shirts with a label of 'Sam & Max' and since our last cat was Sam, I said 'What about Max?' He responded to that name. We always said he picked his own name.

Hopefully Max and Savannah are playing well together somewhere and they are free of the pain of their last days. I will remember them always.