To Maxdog

Today's post has nothing to do with diabetes, I apologise for that, but I'm writing about something I really care about, so I think it's worth giving a go. 

I am a dog person. I love dogs. I was only 15 when my first dog Cico (a pomeranian poodle cross) entered into my life. By then little did I know how important these furry friends are to me. That was 15 years  ago, and now I know that I would never be completely happy without a dog by my side. Five years ago it was Luna's turn to get into my life. She is an enormous Labrador cross, and I love her to bits. That's how I got into labs. It's been  nearly 4 years now that I moved to the UK to complete my postgraduate studies, and since then I have been "pet orphan".  I can say that living in rented accommodation  is definitely not for pet lovers.

I've aways wondered why people are so interested in blogging. For years I've tried to keep one but with little success. In fact, I would not write more than one or two post, for then dropping it. Maybe it was the language barrier, as I am not an English native speaker, or maybe I was just addressing the wrong topic.  I have never been interested in following the very few friend blogs, as they would blog once a month. Not enough to keep me interested I think.

So all this blog thing  started with Bondi & Munson's blog. I've been following it for at least two years now, and honestly I cannot recollect how did I find it in the first place. One day I decided to set up a google reader page, as I wanted to be notified by posts. This reader has a nice button that let's you find similar blogs. And that's how it all started. It was Maxdog's blog  and many many others... in a couple of days the number of dogblogs I was following grew exponentially. Dog blogs are amazing, they lead you step by step into their dog lives to a point that I feel like I know these dogs for real. Soon I wanted to interact with them as I cared and I felt I had something to say.  

How about writing my own dog blog? There's only one small problem: I don't have a dog, and I don't think I'll have one for many years to come. Although this is one of the things I miss most since I moved to the UK, I think it would be too selfish of me to get a dog  then leave him at home alone all day.   

Today's post is about Maxdog, who has crossed the rainbow bridge today. Maxdog was a great golden retriever who lived with his family in South Africa. About 106 days ago he was diagnosed with a big liver tumour. Since then  he has been fighting his battle against this tumour. 

The thing is, he was not alone. The dog blog community has supported him from the very start. For Valentine's day, he was the guest in a unique world tour through his blog friends all over the world: 

 MAX's Valentine's day "MaxSURPRISE!" But that wasn't all! His cyber buddies were involved in the Maxter piece project, where they commissioned a nice portrait of him for his mum. 

Until the very end Maxdog has showed great courage and has enjoyed every single day of his life as if there was no end. Unfortunately his condition was debilitating him too much, so now he is pain free, chasing squirrels and what else with his pal Digby, and all our beloved pets. I will never forget how his mum has been so generous to share with us  the last few moments of his life. I am sure he has lived the life of a king, and he will be very much missed. Even if I didn't  know him,  I'll miss him too.