Max the Labrador

Max

Yellow Labrador, 2009 to 2024. Fifteen years of soft eyes and a slowly greying muzzle.

Kent, England

A quiet page for a gentle dog. No timeline of a life is ever really complete, but this is ours: the milestones, a handful of photographs, and the things we keep saying about him.

🕯️ A whole and well loved life01.06.2009 – 01.10.2024

01.06.2009Born on a farm in the summer, the calmest puppy of a very loud litter.

01.06.2009

01.08.2009Came home at eight weeks and slept the first night in someone's arms, and most nights after.

01.08.2009

01.04.2011Learned that the sea existed. Spent the next thirteen years trying to drink all of it.

01.04.2011

01.09.2014Became, unofficially, the neighbourhood's dog. Everyone knew Max. Max knew everyone.

01.09.2014

01.01.2018Slowed to a gentle amble. Still insisted on carrying his own lead on every walk.

01.01.2018

01.10.2024Left peacefully at home, in the sun, surrounded by the family that was always his.

01.10.2024

The good years, and there were so many of them

Never happier than with a stick twice his size

Younger, brighter, already the gentlest dog we knew

The last summer, still smiling, still ours

"
He was not a remarkable dog by any official measure. He was simply the best part of every ordinary day for fifteen years.
"
Max's family