Maximilian of Bealshire, better known as Max, was my friend, my companion, my loyal supporter and protector. Shortly after I left the house one day, he bolted out the door when a visitor came in. Max attempted to track me, was hit by a car, then hit by another car, and still managed to stagger up the driveway via a swamp, where my daughter was running towards him after a neighbor called her (we live 1/5 mile from the road and trees block our view of it). She took him to the vet but he died on the way. When I got to the vet’s, they were closed. I cried my heart out for an hour before going back home. The next day, we went to get him, buried him and then I placed a white border fence around his grave with some silk flowers and a marker made of a tree slice which I wood burned and marine varnished. I would visit his grave every day and noticed something unfamiliar was growing only inside the fence. It turned out to be a flurrie of tall blue flowers – Forget-Me-Nots. He was only 5 years old. That was in 1995 and I still get choked up when I think of him. I was a walking zombie for 6+ months after he died and to this day, I “forgot him not”.

Ann from ME