Max Marrone, Gamer’s Best Friend (1995-2011)

I don’t think anyone has watched me play more videogames than my dog, Max, who was put down yesterday morning after a pretty awesome life. 

Although he wasn’t around during my NES glory days, his bed was in my parents’ living room, so when I’d come home for weekends and play Wii with the family in recent years, or pull all-nighters on Twilight Princess, he was there, in the corner, totally uninterested in every way possible, but ever steadfast and supportive.

You see, Max was pretty much cool with whatever you did, as long as you did it with him. But he was a gamer, too, and he had his favorites. Many of them involved chasing thrown objects, or running off into the woods and refusing to come back because he knew you were out of treats and, hence, no longer had the tools to lure him back to the car. But he had one particular pastime for which I’ll always remember him:

Chipmunk Hunt.

Max, much like Lennie from Of Mice and Men, just wanted to pet the nice little chipmunks. They were a cute, furry toy, and he’d scoop them up and roll around with them until they were dead.

He was a hunter, all right, but I swear he didn’t mean them any harm. He always looked so disappointed when they stopped trying to escape.

I’m sure many more memories of Max will come to me as the week goes on. But I wanted to share this one with Unwinnable, plus a video, called The Fart Before Christmas, starring Max, that I made with my sisters a few Decembers ago while my parents were out to dinner.

We made it in time for their return, in what seemed like 15 minutes, but we’ll be watching it forever.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnopfc154sQ&version=3&hl=en_GB&rel=0]

Matt Marrone wonders if his mom will still call him Max from time to time, either absentmindedly or because there were real parallels between her dog and her son. Follow him on Twitter @thebigm.