Mine passed in his sleep today from a bleeding heart ulcer. It was expected. Max was given a few days to a few weeks and he comfortably made it to almost a month. I'm grateful for the time we had left--knowing this may be the last time you go to the dog beach, you cherish it just a bit more. Max was a fetch slut who loved the water and I love the beach, it's like we were made for each other.

Before COVID, I used to bring him in to my overnights at the hospital I work at (if my bosses see this, I'm a teller of tall tales, go away). ER nurses, ICU nurses, respiratory therapists, phlebotomists, many of them would visit Max in the Radiology tech room. They'd return to work much more relaxed than when they showed up and Max got many belly rubs.

I miss my boy. I'm not sure I wanna remember him with his sides shaved after his heart and lung tap procedures, [so here's a pic of ol' Max from a couple years go, that beautiful bastard](<blockquote class="imgur-embed-pub" lang="en" data-id="a/Q4IkNMx" data-context="false" ><a href="//imgur.com/a/Q4IkNMx"></a></blockquote><script async src="//s.imgur.com/min/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script>).