Max GH-718

With the heaviest of hearts…

I adopted Max in June 2011. Per the contract with GoldHeart, I am informing you Max no longer lives with us because at 12:30 pm yesterday afternoon, he went to sleep and crossed the Rainbow Bridge at Shore’s Animal Hospital in Harrisburg.

This warm, loving, and loyal soul was trapped in a body that had been slowly failing him over the past two weeks or so. Yesterday morning, his breathing worsened and he had no energy to stand or walk lengthy distances.

I assure you, he was surrounded by his human pack – gently wiggling the tip of his tail and gave me the look to say “it was ok Dad”. I took off his collar and he fell asleep quietly with his tennis ball between his chin and paw. He is now happy and safe – free to run and chase his ball.

His love for his humans and tennis balls was unconditional. He learned quickly to understand B-A-L-L or Bravo Alpha Lima Lima. No matter how much love we gave him, he returned it tenfold. You could never love him more. By the way, he does countersurf (loves Tombstone Pizza), did crate like a champ (but didn’t really need to), and socialized with others (ok, maybe sharing tennis balls was conditional upon his approval only). Max mentored our newest golden. Eventually, conceding a tennis ball from time to time.

He was affectionately known as “Big Brown Dog” to his human friends (believe me, he was infamous in the fire and EMS community here in Harrisburg) and his brothers, Bandit (Baby Brown Dog) and Turbo (Little Brown Dog).

I wanted to thank you and GoldHeart for allowing my family to opportunity to love him so very much. He has truly been a blessing to us. I have included some photos, to share with other potential adoptive families for you to share with regards to the successes of your program.

Thank you again!

Mike Kraska

March 14, 2022