Video Bonus: True Video of Max and Z!

This week there is no True Story.

This is a Short, grainy, but True Video of Max and Z!

MAX AND THE LADY AND Z

She has numerous nicknames: Z, Z-Dog, Z to the E, Zo, ZoZo. Weirdly enough she answers to all of them, but her actual name is Zoie. Zoie is the Australian Queensland Shepard that my mother and I found abounded and we kept.

She is the same Zoie that found me collapsed in the yard and got my mom the night my aneurysm burst.

I’ve wrote about that before, and how we found her.

This tale takes place well before my collapse, at a point when my dad was still alive. At the time the family consisted of: Mom, Dad, I, Lady, Max and Zoie. Six of us. Yes, I had Lady, Max and Zoie all at the same time for six years.

This tale takes place within the first year I had Zoie, when she was still in Puppy Stage.

This is a True Story I call MAX AND THE LADY AND Z.

This also takes place after the previous two MAX AND THE LADY tales – when Lady was no longer quite afraid of Max, but was protective of him.

Especially from Zoie. Yes, Zoie.

Zoie, the gentle, goofy always wanting to play little dog. Even today, she is gentle and wants nothing more than to play – at eight years old. During this time the little mischief maker never knew what to make of Max.

I don’t know if she ever realized (at first) Max was a living creature, she always seemed to treat him like a toy, or a rock.

While Lady would ignore Max and let him do his thing, Zoie used to pay him quite a bit of attention. She would often bounce around him, as if waiting to strike. She would sniff him, looking at him curiously. More than once she would whack him with her paw.

Yep, Zoie would walk up to a moving Max and hit him on the back with her paw. A few times she even flipped him over.

One time I was lifting weights in my backyard make-shift gym when I heard this large bark, followed by a growl. It was Lady. I rounded the corner to see Lady growling at Zoie, they were about ten feet apart.
Lady growled a little more, then let loose with a short, loud, series of barks.

Walking over, I saw the issue.

ZOIE HAD MAX IN HER MOUTH! She had picked Max up and was holding him in her mouth.

Zoie dropped Max right on the brick patio and trotted off the like nothing happened. I came over and put Max right side up. Lady come over, licked Max on his shell and sat down.

This wasn’t the only time this happen. I caught Zoie ‘playing’ with Max a few times. Once she even picked him up and tossed him across the yard, as if trying to crack him open. Any time Lady saw this, she put Zoie in her place with a bark and growl.

And don’t tell me Zoie didn’t know she was doing wrong. Any time she was caught, she would stop, put her head down and mope.

Ace.

Max and the Lady Part 2

As I wrote last story, Lady – the Pitbull – was afraid of Max – The Turtle – after Max snapped at her when she tried to eat his dinner one day.

She was afraid of the little guy for quite some time. Eventually she started to go near him again, but rarely close enough to sniff like at one time. I’m sure she remembered him snapping at her, and in her mind it was probably for no good reason.

Well, one day years later I witnessed one of the most unbelievable and beautiful things I have ever seen.

This is a True Story I call Max and the Lady Part 2

It can be amazing to discover something new – and scary.

This was something I had never thought of until I saw it one day: A Bird tried to pick up Max. Yes, a bird tried to pick up Max and fly off with him. This happened more than once. For food I guess, never thought about it before the first time.

One morning, very early, around one or two AM, Lady started to bark. She often barked when she needed to go outside to do her business. This wasn’t just one loud bark – it was continuous and she sounded upset. I got up, checked on her and put the lights on out back.

I saw birds in the yard and that was it.

I let Lady out and she bolted straight for the birds, scattering and running them out of the yard. I had no idea what was going on. I ran over and found Max on his back, trying desperately to turn over. Lady nudged him with her nose, and his feet just waved about in the air.

I watched as she put her entire snout under him and flipped him over onto his feet. He stayed there for a second, got his bearings on the rocks, then slowly walked off.

Lady? She let out a massive sigh, plopped to the ground and watched him walk off with what looked like a giant grin.

Lady had seen Max on his back, with the birds pecking at him. She barked her head off to be let out, then went to his rescue.

Friends again.

Ace.

MAX AND THE LADY – PART 1

I have written a few times about my late best friend, my Pitbull Lady.

I believe I have mentioned my little buddy Max, too. Max was a desert turtle whose name alternated between Max Power and Maximillion Shell (a play on the actor).

I had both of them at the same time. In fact I got Max from the same co-worker who gave me Lady as a puppy. I took them both home within weeks of each other.

For a brief time I had Max in a typical turtle glass enclosure, but I didn’t feel right about it. Eventually I let Max loose in the back yard, and that is where he lived for 9 years. I gave him water and food every day, and he had the full run of a very large back yard.

Max’s favorite food? Hamburger believe it or not. Ground hamburger. He loved it.

This is a True Story I call Max and the Lady Part 1.

He loved Hamburger. So did Lady.

Around the time of this tale Lady was around ten weeks old. A puppy, but still much larger than Max. Lady would sniff him out and check him out at times, but generally left him alone. Then one day, this happened . . .

I found Max in the back yard and brought him up onto the patio to feed him. I put him down gently and laid a nice sized piece of hamburger in front of him. He took a few seconds to look around, extended his neck out, than chomped down on dinner.

Lady trotted over, sniffed Max, then the hamburger. Lady nudge the hamburger with her nose and . . .

MAX SNAPPED AT HER!

Yes, the tiny turtle snapped at the Pitbull trying to take his dinner. He barely missed taking a chunk out her poor nose.

Lady let out a piercing shriek and ran behind a patio chair and hid. SERIOUSLY!

For a long time after that poor Lady was afraid of Max and wouldn’t go near him.

An attempt to ‘make things better’ backfired the day I held Max up, and let Lady sniff him from behind. I had hoped if she would come up this close, then she wouldn’t be afraid of him any more . . .

But then he peed on her.

Ace.