We adopted Maxi in the summer of 1991 when she was just six months old. We had no idea what happened to her in the past, we only knew we had adopted a great dog.

Maxi lived to be 14 years old. Not long after her 14th birthday, the vet was expressing her anal glands and found a lump. He thought nothing of it at the time, but told us to come back in one month so he could check it again.

In that one month time frame, the lump had more than doubled in size. We knew what was coming.

Maxi declined very quickly after the diagnosis. Her liver began to fail, she would rarely eat and she would throw up a lot, mostly bile.

Although she was a german shepherd, very few people who met her were actually scared of her. Those of us who are dog lovers, knows that, more often than not, beneath the protective exterior of a large dog, beats the heart of a pussycat.

Michelle from Ontario, Canada