Maureen noticed her elderly dog Max behaving strangely. He no longer wanted to be around her, and when he did, he would sniff at her. Max always had this sad, forlorn look on his face, and because he was over 9 years old, it seemed as though he may have been nearing the end of his life.
Then one day she began to pay closer attention to Max's behavior. She noticed that Max kept sniffing at her breasts. When she examined them herself, she felt a lump but thought nothing of it.
"Initially I thought it was just another lump in the breast as people get. But then I sort of connected it with the dog, with his odd behavior," Maureen says.
However, one day she was looking at herself in the mirror and noticed Max's reflection. She looked into her beloved dog's eyes and she knew: It was cancer.
We've seen this kind of cancer sniffing before with Tara, but Max's nose was impeccable. When Maureen first went in for a mammogram the test detected nothing.
Only after a biopsy was the lump proven to be cancerous. It was removed, and this saved her life. Max had detected the cancerous tumor before the most common test could; Maureen credits the pup with her life.
"I love Max so much and I owe him so much and even before I go for a checkup now, I let him check me out and if he is happy and wagging his tale, I am happy," she says.
See more of Max and Maureen's special bond below and please SHARE if you think this is just another reason everyone should have a dog!
