Mark:
I am such a great fan of yours. I love to listen to your radio show.When I first heard about your book Rescuing Sprite, I told my wife i had to get this book.We are both animal lovers and have always had dogs and cats.

I never liked cats and my wife knew that.But one day a stray mama cat showed up at our house.We fed her and she stayed around, but I wouldn’t let her in the house.About a month later,we realized she was pregnant.As i got home from work one day,I was greeted with a surprise.She had three kittens and my wife had to help her deliver the first one because he was so big. We let our kids name them and my youngest named the big one Chubbs.

Anyway, twenty years later,Chubbs and I had become best friends,mainly because I had three back surgeries and he layed with me everyday.
I could go on and on, but he was twenty and he was starting to fade.We had taken him to the vet, and with lots of problems, his kidneys were starting to fail. The vet,who is great, by the way,said he didn’t thing he was suffering and that it could be a while before we had to put him down. So we came back and did everything we could and prayed that he would die in his sleep.But it didn’t happen. He seemed to have had a stroke or something was affecting his brain. He couldn’t get around very well at all and it seemed it was affecting his ability to eat and drink.

My wife told me that she couldn’t be there when we had to put him to sleep. I acted strong and said Ok,but I didn’t know if I could do it either.Being retired,I was home with him all the time.

A week later on a warm and sunshiny day,I took him out in the yard with me and we layed in the grass for about 2 hours.I knew it was time.I loaded him up in the car with me and we drove to the vet,about twenty miles away,with me talking and rubbing him all the way.My wife was working and I didn’t call her so she wouldn’t be upset.About two miles before we got to the vet,my cell phone rang.It was my wife,asking me where I was .I told her I was taking Chubbs to the vet.Silence came over the phone until she asked me,her voice breaking up ,if I was alright.I told her yes ,then I started tearing up and told her I had to go .
She came home from work early and we had a funeral service for Chubbs.

I know this is about a cat and not a dog,but this cat was special to me.I have had dogs all my life, and have lost some very special friends during my life time.
The worst part about this was that I felt guilty about taking Chubbs to be put to sleep.I was all alone in the house now when my wife was at work.I finally sat down and wrote letter to Chubbs asking for his forgiveness for letting him down because he had trusted me when I put him in the car that sad day.

We had some friends that knew how special that Chubbs was to us and they sent a very special e-mail that contained a website to go to.Mark,this is special to me.You may or maynot have seen this ,but please go to it if you haven’t.It will make you cry,but also feel good at the same time with the message.
The site is:http//www.indigo.org/rainbowbridge_ver2.htm.

God bless you and your family and Sprite and Pepsi.

Rocky from AR