Max is one lucky dog. Lucky enough that he regards food as a ‘want’ and not a ‘need’. During dinner we’ll plonk his doggie bowl at the usual spot, and Max will give it a casual sniff before running off to play. Only when he’s done chasing butterflies or lizards or whatever he’ll return to the bowl and crunch the pellets down with an unhurried air. Unlike Tat’s golden retrievers Leo and Smuffy- they gobble up their kibble like it’s the Last Bowl of Dog Food Ever In The World.

We shower Max with SO MUCH love. Sometimes it surprises us even- but we can’t help ourselves, it comes naturally every time Max cocks his furry head or blinks his long lashes at us. I give Max cuddles whenever he wants it (and also when he doesn’t), my dad wrestles with him (Max gets especially excited whenever my dad flips him onto his back a la martial arts), my brother tolerates Max’s painful paw punches to the face, my mother yells at us whenever she finds out that we so much as took Max’s donut away for punishment, my sister… well she hasn’t met the furball yet but I’m sure she’ll be reduced to a puddle of cooing goo once Max offers her his paw for a shake/rolls over (for a treat of course, Max doesn’t do free shows).

However, we are very careful to not let Max get too spoilt. This is why we exercise the disciplinary regime of Let Him Know We Are Bigger Than Him– Much, Much Bigger. Whenever Max gets extra naughty, we tower over him (I tiptoe sometimes) and boom “NO” at him. And if that doesn’t work, we reveal the Stick of Death. This will usually generate Pitiful Puppy Actions from Max- he’ll roll onto his back and give a couple of cutesy jabs in the air with his paws, throwing in an endearing body wriggle for good measure.

But… I do think that we’re the luckier ones. I am aware that life wasn’t at all bad before Max came along- but in my head I picture the pre-Max days as everyone sitting sullenly around the dinner table eating quietly; as for the post-Max days we’re all singing while passing around the salt/pepper shakers, laughing while sharing Max anecdotes before agreeing “life is so much better with Max around!”

I love Max.

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 11th, 2008 at 5:39 pm and is filed under max. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.