100 DAYS OF GRACE!!!

GREETINGS FROM SOUTH AFRICA!!! 

Hello there to all our friends across the globe!

Can you believe ...
We have reached this amazing milestone...

MAXDOG'S 100th DAY OF GRACE!!!

---xXx---

If I look back over the past 100 days, I realise what an incredible journey it has been

... and continues to be.

I have leaned to take each day as the blessing it is but I must admit that at times I have forgotten all the amazing events which have made up the past 100 days.

 Today is indeed a milestone.

 Our Maxdog is a living, walking, breathing miracle!!!

I thought I'd try and summarise some of the highlights and lowlights of these past 100 days

---xXx--- 

On the 6th February, Maxdog was sent home from the Specialist Veterinary Hospital, together with his distraught Maxmom (me), with the instruction to simply 'love him' and bring him back for euthanasia the minute he starts struggling. There was nothing more that the Vets could do for him as he had been diagnosed with a tumour which occupied 9/10ths of his liver. The general understanding at the time was that Maxdog only had only about 2 weeks left to live!

Little did we all know!....here we sit...100 days later!!!.

Following this announcement, our cyber-community banded together and we received an overwhelming Tsunami of cyber support from around the globe. Emails, comments and various messages of support arrived on our doorstep. 

Over the past 100 days we have received over 4000 comments of support! The world has embraced the plight of my beautiful dog and I am so grateful! Prayer groups were set up and we rode those first couple of weeks on  a high of goodwill from people we'd never met.

It was a heartwarming moment when the family of our little autistic friend, Murray and his service dog, Clive, in Ireland decided to sponsor the training of a service pup by the name of Stan in Maxdog's honor, so I that I would have a pup to follow when Max had finally departed across the rainbow bridge.

On Valentines Day (14th February 2010), the blogging community gathered their collective creativity and posted a series of "Max Tour Stories" on their personal blogs for our enjoyment. These were embellished with photographs of Maxdog being 'hosted' by their countries, cities and homes.  What amazing hospitality came our way as we were able to visit and read every one of those posts.  There were 42 bloggers involved in this drive.

Soon after that and unbeknown to me, the blogging community also conspired to commission a beautiful painting of Maxdog by the artist, Kathleen Coy. This was affectionately entitled

The 'Maxterpiece' and the 'Maxproject'.

Friends from around the globe collected funds to pay for both the painting and its framing.  It was also a great surprise to discover that there were even more funds left over from their gift, so we added our own bit and gave a donation of R1000 to

The Society for Animals in Distress

here in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Over the past 100 days, we have enjoyed many events in cyberspace including the amazing

Iditarod in Alaska.

Soon after the announcement of Max's illness I became desperate to collect hard copy photographs of Max.  I realised I have very few of him and I together.

This prompted the
"Mom and Me photo" drive

 as I tried to encourage my readers to get that photo of their pet and themselves as soon as they could.

 Our blogposts over this time period have also included snippets of the build up to the

FIFA Soccer World Cup 2010

which is due to take place in a few weeks in our country.

I have written various poems over the time and presented many photographs of Maxdog which I have collected. I've included scenes from South Africa and a written about a range of

"Feel good moments."

Maxdog has also shared stories about his

Golden family,

'Life lessons according to Maxdog'

and also attempted to introduce

 King Toffee as a potential substitute Tour Guide.

We have posted videos of Maxdog and Tammy's tricks as well as explained How we taught Maxdog to talk. We were also invited to participate in the BBC Programme examining the power of the internet (you can see the video by following the links in the sidebar)

On a sad note, we have seen the passing of our dear friends...

Hamish (in Scotland) on the 19th February 2010 and

Digby (in France) on the 10th May.

Numerous other fur-friends have sadly passed on and all these friends have left a big pawprint on our hearts.

So there has been a lot of water which has run under own own bridge over the past 100 days but the overwhelming thing has been the incredible cyber-friendships which have come our way.  Through your support and encouragement, we keep hopeful and take each day as a blessing it is meant to be.

After 100 days, Max is still comfortable and painfree. Whilst he is very lethargic and picky with his food, he still enjoys his afternoon walks and simply being in the company of a loving family.

We have learnt that we should never discount his need to live life to the full. We have also learned that Vets cannot predict when a dog will die. We have learnt too that each dog is unique and each owner's personal paradigm is also unique...that is is impossible really to give advice to or pass judgment on situations which are not our own. We have learnt that with every closing door a new one opens, that in the journey with a dying dog, nothing is guaranteed or certain. Our most important lesson however has been...

LIVE EACH DAY FOR WHAT IT OFFERS!!!...

Carpe Diem!

So instead of toasting to the next 100 days, let us simply celebrate...

THIS DAY!!!...

Thank you to all our cyber friends for serving to uphold the vision of

MAXDOG's BLOG:

(SHARING, CARING AND UPLIFTING!)

What an incredible journey this is!

With lots of love and thanks

MAXMOM IN SOUTH AFRICA