My brother adopted Max from a shelter while he lived in our house and we were out of state. Max was a male German Sheppard Black Lab mix approximately 2.5 years old. He was so intelligent and my brother was in security and spent a lot of time training Max. Max loved be trained and to spend time with humans was his all time favorite thing in the world.

We moved back home and we loved living with Max. We helped care for him and went for daily bike rides with him. Part of our daily ritual was a 30 minute brushing at 11am, which he loved. Sometimes in the evenings he would decide he wanted to be brushed and he would sit in front of my face and I would go through the list of possible things Max might want and when I got to the right thing he would dart forward and lick my face--that was one of his methods of communicating. The other was whinning and moving of his mouth in a form of speaking to us. He was the first dog I ever heard talk this way.

We loved living with him and when my brother moved to a condo he left him with us but they would still spend a lot of time together.

One day the unthinkable happened and Max started getting sick and nauseated and couldn't eat or drink without vomiting. The doctor didn't know what was wrong but in the end assumed it was either poisoning or stomach cancer that took him. He died a gruelling and painful death despite many medical treatments and we were all fooled by what was happening right under our noses.

Please know the signs of shock and internal bleeding and you may save your own dog from pain and suffering. Look for pale gums, purple dots on the surface of the skin--this is blood rising to the surface when there is internal bleeding present, cool skin temps--this is shock, dark brown vomit or with brown speckles in it--this is blood in the vomit. Despite having daily IV fluids and nutrition and a ultrasound--which was found to have severe gastrointestinal distresws but not requiring surgery. Max's illness was not caught in time and he passed away. We all dearly miss him. He was a wonderful dog and friend.