Max's Story

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About Max's Story

Max’s Story

I decided to write Max’s story as a healing thing for me. It took me a long time before I could even post his photos on here. The pain it causes just to think of him is unbearable still to this day. I can’t think of him without being totally overwhelmed with tears and grief. Because of that I may have to write his story in parts. It would just take to long to express my love for this dog without breaking down. But here goes…I’m giving it my best shot.




The story behind Maxtor:


Maxtor is one of the many pet names I had for my Baby boy Max. I called him, Maxtor (I am a computer person and always slipped because I installed Maxtor Hard drives, lol), Mannix (his AKC name), Mackey, Brutus, Pupup, buppy bup and on and on. He was what held me together like glue through some really rough times. Maxtor was probably the only thing in my life I ever allowed myself to get sooo attached to especially after my 4-year-old son Billy died 10 yrs prior. Especially to the point I was attached to him. He is the only dog I have ever seen cry tears when I cried. Me owning Max was not something I did on purpose. It was an accident by fate. It was meant to be. I believe that in my heart completely. God sent him to me.

Here is his rescue story…

One day my 5yr old son Zachary and I were heading home and I had just said to him the week before, "That\'s it! No more strays". It was after finding a pure bred Alaskan malamute. She was beautiful and I knew that someone was missing her. I took her home and posted signs everywhere. Sure enough the owner found a sign at our local Post Office and called me. I took her back to her owner whom I still to this day am not sure deserved to own her, but I did it anyway. I thought if they didn\'t love her they wouldn\'t have called. Little did I know then what I know now…. I was so naïve.

Strays had a way of finding me no matter what. I already had 2 dogs + a dog “Buddy”. A dog I took in as a rescue till the owner could find a home where he could take his dog without being threatened to be thrown out of his rental home. He was a body builder and when he left Buddy with me he cried. The limit in the city I lived in was 2. I just didn\'t want Zac to think I could take all of them in and ignore the rules.

Anyway, we were on our way home and 2 streets before we turned on to our street there was this beautiful Long Haired German Shepherd sitting by the street just looking around. I had never seen her before. She was loose and there were no humans around watching over her. When I said to Zac “I don’t see the dog and I am going home because I can’t keep doing this” I drove past her. Then suddenly she darted behind us and almost got hit by a car. I pulled over immediately. I jumped out and ran over to her. There was no one around and I didn’t know where to take her. I knocked on the door to the house she sat in front of and there was no one home. So I left a note on their door, which said if she was theirs I had her and left my number.

When we got home she followed me everywhere. She played with my dogs and got along great with them. When I had to work in my office she laid under my desk right by my feet. She was such a sweet girl. I started getting concerned when it started getting late and I didn’t get a response to my note. I decided to go knock on the door to the house I left a note on at about 11pm. They said that she belonged to their roommate who had taken her in because the owner couldn’t keep her anymore. He had her only for 2 weeks. He wasn’t home, but they said they would take “Amber” and take care of her. Against my better judgment I left her with them.

For 2 weeks after that my son and I kept a close watch on Amber. We stopped in to talk to the people on the weekends. I even found out where she was originally bought from because I knew one day I would want a dog like her. While checking on her we found that she was locked outside everyday on the back deck to their house. It was 10feet off the ground she had no food or water. She couldn’t get to the ground to go potty. She had to do it on the deck. Zac and I would take water to her everyday. Finally I got fed up.

After 2 weeks of this I went over one day and she was really depressed. She was tied to the deck and locked in with a gate. No food or water. I just unchained her and opened the gate and she ran all the way to my truck. I took her home and immediately proceeded to take down my 4 ft chain link fence and started putting up a 6 ft stockade fence. I had fallen in love with this beautiful girl and I decided if they weren’t going to take care of her and protect her I was. Since they lived so close I wanted to make sure they didn’t see her at my house. The sad thing is, that the man that owned her was a Minister. I just could not understand the way he treated her.

The fence process was a long one. We had a really big yard and we didn’t have the money to do it all at once. So we had a temporary fence along with the old and new one. One day Zac went outside and opened the temporary fence without replacing it. Needless to say some of the dogs escaped. It was Amber and Buddy my rescue dog. I was so terrified when I saw them gone. I jumped in my truck and started searching the neighborhood. I searched for at least 12 hours. I called for Amber and Buddy for hours. Finally I found Buddy standing in the middle of a street. When he saw me he was so happy! He ran and jumped right in my Bronco. Amber was nowhere to be found. Finally at about 3am I decided that her old owners probably found her and they had her. I went home that night and cried all night. I really loved her and missed her only after having her 2 weeks.

I tried to stay away from the house Amber lived at but couldn’t. I checked all the time and could never find her. Finally got up enough nerve to go by and ask the owners how she was doing. The response was devastating. They told me she had gotten out for a while and when they chained her to the deck this time she jumped.


She hung herself from their deck with the choker chain they had on her neck chained to their deck. It took everything I had inside me not to fall apart right there in front of them. The really sick think was that in the same breath the Minister said he was going to the place she was bought and he was going to get another dog like her. I was so devastated when I left there I went home and climbed in bed and cried for 2 weeks.

When I finally got myself together I got mad! I called my girlfriend Lisa and told her and she was right there with me. We all 3 jumped in my truck and drove 2 hours away to where Amber was bought. My intentions were to beg the person who bred these dogs to never sell these people a dog. Little did I know when I got there that this place was a Puppy Mill. This woman could care less about what happened to Amber. She did however ask me how old she was and what she looked like. She knew exactly which litter Amber came from. She also had one pup left from a litter that came from the same two parents. She send her little Amish helper out to one of the barns on their property to bring back the last pup from that litter. It was my baby Max! He was so adorable! When I saw him the first thing I said was “What is that?”. He looked like and overgrown puppy Shepherd with long corn rolls. He was 10 weeks old and weighed 25lbs. There was no way I was resisting this dog especially knowing he was born into a puppy mill. Actually at that time I didn’t even know what a puppy mill was. Not till we started driving home and I saw how sick he was……

To Be Continued