He's terrifying, a veritable Viking who guards what he loves with his very life.

Of course, he weighs just shy of five pounds and lost most of his teeth in an unfortunate incident. But still... ferocious at heart.

Maximus Minimus joined my sweetie's family through adoption. In his first family, I hear, there were little kids who thought perhaps Max should be able to fly. He was not a fan of air travel, and to this day is not enamored with children.

While most of his kind yip and yap, Max is a big dog (inside, at least). When we walk our pack, he happily takes up the six and walks our streets like he owns them.

I'm not going to lie... Max isn't 100% badass. He loves nothing better than to be stowed away in someone's hoodie - preferably someone with boobs. He's like a portable fire pit, so it works out well for everyone on cold mornings.

Max is the jealous sort. One of my favorite memories is walking around a VW car show with him one hot summer. I stopped to pet a puppy that we encountered, and Max wasn't having it. This, I figured out as he soaked my foot and sandal in pee. "MINE." I got the message.

His hobbies include chirping at us to let us know if one dog bowl is empty (not even his bowl), turbo-ing through the house after a much-dreaded bath, and trying to avoid our overgrown puppy. He also likes to visit my sweetie out in the shop, even if there's grinding, banging, and welding going on.

In the five years I've known him, he hasn't changed a bit. Except that his face is now mostly white from age. Arthritis in his hip wasn't helped by getting clobbered by the rampaging puppy, either. So, now he's on a tiny dose of pain meds each day, administered when we see him start to twist his back legs together to support his puny weight.

It's hard to watch him age, knowing that his time here is nearing the end. I never knew I liked tiny dogs until Max, but he's taught me that, and more.

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Inspired by @future24... I'm going to do this challenge!

Rules of the Steemit Monthly Author Challenge:

• Post 1 article with a photo of your life every day for one month and use the tag #monthlyauthorchallenge for these posts.

• You don't have to add a detailed describtion to your photo article and it can be a quick photo post with Steepshot for example too. (But don´t forget the #monthlyauthorchallenge tag!)

• The photo of your life doesn't have to be up-to-date, but not older than 1 year.

• To make it more comfortable for everyone, you don't have to nominate someone for the challenge every day in your daily post. Nominating is voluntary, but to share this fun, I would suggest to nominate some other Steemians from time to time, so that you can do this funny challenge together.

• Your challenge ends when you reach the Monthy Author badget on steemitboard.com and then just make a final post that you finished the challenge. 👌

That's it, just have fun and if you like, share this challenge too and let's become Monthly Authors. Everyone, Steem On!