Max was nine years old when he found himself homeless in the aftermath following a divorce.  He had been cast aside and he was living alone in a dirt bottom car port---unwanted and unloved.  Out of sheer boredom, Max spent much of his time pacing and he had worn a deep path around the perimeter of the car port.  He was being fed poor quality food and he was receiving no exercise or attention of any kind.  When he came into our care he was obese, filthy and badly matted.  His ears were chronically infected and he had several abscessed teeth.  He had lost the sparkle in his eyes and he was losing his will to live.

Max was in immediate need of veterinary care for his badly infected ears, which were causing him a great deal of discomfort.  His ears were flushed and cleaned and he was started on antibiotics, analgesics and anti-inflammatory medications, but our vet feared that he might require ear canal ablation surgery if conservative treatment wasn't effective.  We quickly realized that Max was also suffering from food allergies, which were contributing to his ear problems as well, so he was started on a good quality hypoallergenic food.  Thankfully, after several weeks of treatment, Max's ears were getting better and his overall health had improved enough to proceed with his dental surgery.  Once the abscessed teeth were removed, Max began to feel like a brand new dog!

Under the care of his dedicated foster family, Max really started to blossom.  Being fed controlled portions of high quality food and being provided with regular exercise was helping Max to lose the extra weight and his energy level had improved dramatically.  He had regained his zest for life and he was ready for adoption!  Max found an amazing forever home with a wonderful young couple in Nanaimo and he has become a much-loved member of the family. 

 

Special thanks to Jim and Lily for sponsoring Max and assisting with his medical costs.

***An update from Max's family:

"I just wanted to drop you a line with an update on how Max is getting on here.

What can I say? He's just a wonderful dog. It's only been 3 weeks or so but I cannot imagine the place without him. As you know I work from home and he's very good company for me. What's even better is that even though he loves to play "fetch" (and would probably keep playing until his legs fell off) he seems to know when I need to concentrate. For instance, if I am taking a call, he will sit down and wait quite calmly until I'm done, and never barks (well, unless I am teasing him with the frisbee of course)
 
Now I just need to teach him to answer emails for me.
 
He's pretty good with the neighborhood dogs, but I do get the feeling he's not quite sure how to play with them. We've had a couple of moments where he was almost ready to run around, but then sort of hesitated. We'll keep working on it. And I must add that he's quite the darling with the ladies around here. In fact I've met more folks when walking him than in all the time since we arrived here in May! I'm totally confident with him off the leash now when we get away from the road. I found a lovely walk nearby so we're out 3 times a day at the moment. Annoyingly I think he's getting fitter whereas I'm still huffing up the hill like an old steam train.
 
On walks he sticks very close, and the only time I've wondered about his intentions was when he spotted a cat, but in the end he just sort of woofled at it and moved on.
 
Health-wise he's doing very well I think. We're cleaning his ears weekly with some magic potion that I got from the vet after his check-up, and he's not scratching, chewing his paws or anything like that. At the moment we're still about 90% on the duck diet, although he's had the odd corner of steak or bit of sausage with no apparent ill-effects.
 
So! Thank you very much for doing the work you do, and for rescuing Max for us. I honestly cannot imagine a more perfect doggy pal."

"...which leads me on to my question of the week: are you SURE he's 9? This dog is like the Duracell bunny. Yesterday we had 3 walks and I swear at least 3 hours of fetch on top of that - and he was ready for more.

Anyway, here's Max during one of his lively run-arounds, hoping I'll make my 1,000th frisbee throw of the day. Note the valuable antique rug which is now his personal braking area. (Well I'm kidding, it's just an old rug)

Hope everything is going great with you..."