Cheater, Cheater...Jerky Eater?!

SO, we have a dog named Max (those of you that know this story are probably already smiling!). We've had him for about six years (since he was a puppy). We used to have a dog named Heidi that was a couple of years older than Max. She got hit by a car a few years ago. She survived running loose in Little Rock and "downtown" Springdale (unintentionally of course) and then we moved her to the country and she got hit. It was very sad. Anyway, Max was a very lively dog until Heidi died but has just never been the same since. He's got a bad habit of getting out of the neighborhood (none of us have fences) and tearing up trash. I got a phone call a couple of months ago and a man asks me if I have a dog named Max. I immediately say yes and start apologizing and asking if he's been in his trash. He tells me, "No, no we saw his tags this morning and called the vet to get your number." (Jared had taken Max and Tuck (our cat) to the vet the day before and gotten their shots and tags (oops, he'd been running without those). He goes on to tell me that Max had been coming to his house for the past YEAR and they didn't know who he belonged to since he didn't have any tags. They'd been calling him Big. "He's just the best dog we've ever had. He gets along with all of our animals so well. You should just see how his eyes light up when we get out the the deer jerky! How old is he anyway?" I tell him six and he acts surprised because he "acts like such a puppy and lays in the yard and wrestles with one of our little dogs." (all he EVER does at our house is lay around!). I tell him about Heidi and he says that figured that he liked going there so much because of all the other dogs (I think that he was just being nice). I tell him that we'd thought about building a fence to keep him in and he all but begs me not to. THEN he tells me that since it had been so cold at night they'd been letting him come in and sleep on a PILLOW in their ROOM with their CAT!!! We had been so worried about him because of the weather and didn't know where he was going at night!! Then for the icing on the cake he tells me that they just love him SO much that they put him on their CHRISTMAS CARD!!! He told us that he was welcome there anytime and if we ever decided to get rid of him (umm, no!) he'd always have a home there. He said that if we couldn't find him he was probably at their house (he usually sleeps on a pillow on their back porch that overlooks the RIVER) and we could come and get him anytime. So, every once in awhile Jared will go to their house and call his name. He trots from the backyard and jumps in the car to come to his "other" home. I feel like the not-so-cool step parent :( We do let him come in and sleep some (you've gotta keep up!) and he loves the kids, but when left outside for very long, he goes back "home"!! Here are some pictures from his last visit. Who wouldn't want to live with these SWEET kids??? Can't you just see all of that PUPPY in him!?! He is seriously living a double life.