Vernon County Humane Society

But the 1-month deadline for his status to change to adoptable loomed. We knew that three families had already applied to adopt him. We knew that he would soon leave us. And we couldn't bear the thought.

So we have decided to adopt dear Maddax (we call him Max for short). We are very happy!!! Greta and Austin are happy. The cats are less than happy but his cat-chasing is diminishing slowly. We can easily redirect his attention now.

And I think he is happy too.

Maddax loves to lay flat out in the grass in the sunshine. When the other dogs come in, he stays out by himself sometimes. He LOVES to watch bugs and will try to catch them if he can. If he catches a bug, he eats. it.

Could not resist sharing a picture of Maddax nibbling on the new grass. If you could have only heard his snuffling!!! He makes the funniest little noises. Very cute.

He sure loves his toys. He has a nice small collection of them now, most recently a new hard rubber bone. He doesn't object when we take it or any toy from him. But if one of the other dogs wants a toy, he politely says he will not share. No way.

He keeps his toys in his crate. He sure loves that crate. He has a Great Dane size, which is great for him because he wants to stretch out those back legs in a frogleg pose really often, and the large crate gives him that room.

Here is Maddax laying on my foot next to the table where the laptop is sitting. He likes to be near his people.

You can see the shaved area of his leg, and if you look really carefully you can see his scar-line along the top curve of his bone.

The vet said he is healing wonderfully! Such great news. He has another 4 weeks of healing, with limited exercise, but all is going very well and he will be pain-free in the end. While he still limps at times, you can see him use his leg normally too. YAY!!!

Maddax is lounging in his crate. He loves his crate. Whenever we wonder where he is, we find him in his crate, resting. He loves to relax.

Happy boy. He has his multicolor pull toy to the left of his nose, very close by. His red rubber ball is under his ear. He has fleece blankets all around, and an old cotton rug that he often repositions to just the right spot to support his shoulder and head.

On Friday he goes to his surgeon to evaluate his progress. I hope-hope-hope that it is a good prognosis! This guy deserves the best future in the world.

A Maddax moment to share:

When he is leashed and on a walk, sometimes when he poops he rejoices at the end. It is hilarious. It happened again this morning. He finished his "job" and then propelled himself straight up in the air to look straight in my face with his wide doggy grin, eyebrows lifted. When he landed, he spun twice and then grabbed the leash to shake and pull for a little bit. He's done this routine a few times.

We have had a setback with cat desensitization, and now I don't have hopes that he will be safe in a cat-owning family by the time he is adoptable in April. I do think he is trainable and cooperative, but when he is overexcited, we can't reach that side of his brain. Our Great Dane Greta was murder to cats when she was young and we resorted to moving our cat temporarily to my parents where we had lived recently, but Greta is completely safe with cats today. It takes time and training. Maddax has scars on his face that look consistent with cat claws, and I think he may have had a traumatic encounter with a cat in his former life. He may never be completely safe with all cats. In our house, he is not very interested in our cat Tilly, but he is completely fixated on our cat Lucy and came close to injuring her the other day.

Maddax is riding behind the middle seats on the way to a park in central Wisconsin, all spiffy in his tie-dye fleece sweater coat and his harness. He charmed everyone he met with his cheerful, relaxed personality, and proved to be an excellent house-guest. He changed a few minds about pitbulls!

Maddax is playing with his new toy in the living room of the home we visited, and you can see that his scar is invisible on the thigh that is laying on the floor. You have to look closely to see it. But his muscle mass on that leg is noticeably less than the other leg, and he still limps continually. He is up to two 15-minute walks daily.

Here's Maddax, relaxing on the couch. If you could hear him now, you would have to laugh. He is making these little snorting noises. Dear Maddax. He is the most adorable character.

Tomorrow we go on our trip!

Even though he is still recovering, we believe he'll be just fine. His crate will be set up in the van with his cushions and blankets just like home, and set up in the house as well. We'll continue with his daily therapy walks every day.

Maddax is limping but he uses his leg a lot, putting weight on it most of the time, but not all of the time. When he is standing, he will sometimes let his leg dangle with his nails touching the floor, holding it out a bit backward. But his surgery was just a few weeks ago so we think he is on schedule with his healing process.