How Another Rescue Dog is Teaching Her Family that the Benefits of Canine Companionship Far Outweigh the Fear of Loss

We get a lot of fan letters and stories from people who have enjoyed our book, Life to the Max, but Jeff Munn took the time to send us pictures of his family’s beautiful rescue dog named Cinderella and the following story:

“Thank you so much for such a great book. I first became aware of it at McClintock Animal Care, where we take our best friend, Cinderella.

“I felt the sorrow right along with you when that moment came to say goodbye to Max, but what a wonderful way to describe Max’s journey to be reunited with Bernie. Having grown up with dogs, the thing that always prevented me from trying to convince my wife and kids to bring a dog into the house was the heartbreak you experience at the end. Last July, we were three months removed from having to say goodbye to the kids’ hamster, which broke all our hearts, when the family surprised me on my birthday with a webpage printout from the Arizona Animal Welfare League detailing Cinderella, a five year old lab mix. We immediately went to the League offices to adopt her.

“In the 13 months she has been with us, Cinderella has helped my daughter Hayley overcome her fear of dogs, lowered my blood pressure and has sent word to the neighborhood cats that they can’t camp out on top of our block fence anymore. She’s still working on our pigeon problem. I can’t imagine life without our Cinderella, and I’ve come to realize that while it will hurt when that day to say goodbye comes, it will be small compared to the joy she has and will continue to bring to us.

“You are so right about the staff at McClintock Animal Care. When our hamster, Cupcake, left us, Dr. Claus sent a sympathy card. Cinderella always produces smiles from the staff when she comes to visit. She loves to go bye-bye, whether it’s to the clinic, the Dog Park, or Petco, where she’s on a first name basis with the staff there as well.

“I know her name isn’t Max, but I thought I’d share her story and her picture. What a precious gift Max was, and what a precious book Max wrote with your help.”

As I wrote back to Jeff when he sent this story: beyond all the laughter, comfort and unconditional love our dogs give us, they also give us the opportunity to accept death as a natural cycle of life. Some people are surprised by the intensity of their feelings when our furry friends leave us, but why shouldn’t we be sad when we lose a relationship that has brought us so much joy? Even in death, they teach us that by overcoming our fear of letting them go, we have dared to receive so much more in return. God bless you and your family for giving Cinderella the opportunity to be your teacher.

You may recognize Jeff’s name as one of the radio voices from the Arizona Diamondbacks. We know he must be pretty busy these days so we appreciate the time he took to share this story with us.  Go D’backs and live Life to the MAX!

I received this link to a story about Little Janey who is an Airedale stray that was found in Mesa, AZ with a badly broken pelvis. http://www.airedaleterriers.org/azjaney/ She could have been hit by a car or she could have been horribly abused. Either way, this baby needs help. If she needs an operation, it could be between $2,000 to $4,000. So please donate to Airedale Rescue and earmark the funds for Southwest Airedale Terrier Rescue or Arizona Fund to help Janey get the medical care she needs. How someone could just drive away or abuse a dog like this just makes me cry.

In an effort to do more for rescue, we are expanding our options for donations.  Since April when we really kicked off our sales program, we have been donating 10% of the price of the book to either National Airedale Rescue or Southwest Airedale Rescue when purchased on our website http://www.lifetomax.com/buy-now/. Now we have decided to increase the amount of the donation to 25% and we are giving buyers the option to choose from a list of even more animal rescue groups.  Right now we have a agreements with National Airedale Rescue ATCA), Southwest Airedale Terrier Rescue (SWAT), Arizona Animal Welfare League (AAWL) and just recently, we added Rescue a Golden of Arizona (RAGofAZ). We are in discussion with more rescue groups and we hope to add more soon. This only applies to purchases on our Life to Max website and not to events or other websites. If you are a rescue group and you would like to partner with us, please email us at max@nicecreative.com.