Max's Post

Hi!  I'm Max!  According to the vet, I'm about a year old and some kind of shepherd/basset hound mix.

I got my new family right after Christmas and I am so excited to be with them.  For a while, I was a stray dog who managed to survive on my own, but then some nice people found me and took care of me for a month or so.  They lived in an apartment and would let me swim in their lake retention pond every day.  I loved it there, but they decided that since they were in college, they couldn't really afford to take care of me and feed themselves, so I had to find a new home.

The mom of the person who found me posted my picture on a neighborhood information board and The Lady saw it and thought I was cute.  One day, The Lady, The Man, The Girl, The Big Boy and The Small Boy came to play with me at my apartment and decided to let me come live with them.

I was nervous at first.  Their house smelled weird and they gave me new food to eat.  I was quiet and shy at first; I only barked a few times the first week that I lived with them.  But then I got braver and started to play with them, especially The Girl, who always takes me on my walks and The Big Boy who seems to have just as much energy as I do.

I like to sit under the table when they're eating their meals and I keep waiting for them to give me a bite of whatever smells so yummy, but they never do.  I like to follow them around, too.  The Lady says I'm like a toddler, whatever that is.  They won't let me in their bedrooms which is a shame because they look like they have lots of fun things to chew in there, but I can go wherever I want in the rest of the house and that's nice.  And they like for me to spend the night in my crate, but that's OK, too, because they give me treat and some toys to play with.

The Girl seems to like me the most.  She pets me a lot and doesn't even mind picking up my poop when we go for walks.  She likes to boss me around and The Man says that it's good that her bossiness is now focused on someone other than her brothers.  The Girl doesn't like it when I howl along to her piano playing, though.  I'm sure she thinks whatever she's playing sounds pretty, but to me it just sounds like noise.

The Big Boy likes to give me my food and my treats.  Of the three Little People, I think he's going to be my best playmate because he's rough like me.  He doesn't like it when I give him little nips, though.

The Small Boy doesn't play with me all that much because I used to make his eyes all puffy and watery.  He keeps saying the word "allergy" and I don't know what that means, but after The Lady gave The Small Boy some medicine before bed, The Small Boy felt better.  The Small Boy calls me "sweet boy" and will throw my ball, but doesn't pet me a lot because of the "allergy".

The Man isn't home very much, but when he is, he's nice to me.  Unless I dig a big hole in the back yard and then he's not so happy.  When The Lady and the The Three Little People came home late one evening, The Man fed me my dinner and took me for a walk.  He even brought me a new bed to relax on.  I think he's warming up to me.

The Lady is home more than anyone else and she's the one who feeds me breakfast and takes me for walks when The Girl goes to school.  The Lady lets me go outside and play in the back yard when it's not raining.  She usually vacuums when I'm out there which is good because the vacuum scares me.  The Lady also wipes my paws off when I come back in.  At first I didn't like that, but now I'm used to it and I automatically sit on my mat when I come in from the back yard.  I also didn't like it when she gave me a bath; she didn't look as though she liked it much, either.  I got her big bathroom nice and messy, but she said I was stinky and needed it.  When my tummy wasn't feeling too good (probably because I chewed up one of The Girl's jackets), The Lady gave me some homemade chicken broth.  I guess that means she kind of likes me even though I occasionally hear her mutter something about being a "cat person".

So far I've got a pretty easy life.  Two square meals a day (literally - my food is shaped in little squares), some toys to play with and people who mostly seem to like me.

I think I'm going to like it here.