Mark, I just recently gave “Rescuing Sprite” to my mom for her birthday. I love the picture of him on the cover….what a sweet looking dog he was! I look forward to reading it when she is done. Your story about Sprite hits close to home, as we had to put our dog down as well last year, October 31, 2006. Heinz was 16.5 years old and the third dachshund that we had while I was growing up. Our first two, Fritz and Schultz, lived well into their teens and both died naturally, but it was Heinz that we had to make that decision. He lived with my parents but I saw him often on weekends and thought of him as my own. I remember speaking with my brother a week or so before we put Heinz down, and him telling me that we were going to have to do “something”. I knew what that “something” was, but I told him that I didn’t want to know about it and didn’t want to talk about it. About a week later when talking with my mom, I hesitantly asked how Heinz was doing, even though I suspected that he was gone. She told me he was and that she knew that I didn’t want to know when it happened. I cried and couldn’t talk and had to hang up the phone. Even though I knew it coming sooner or later, it was still very hard to take. I think it was especially hard since we were the ones who made that decision and hadn’t had to do that before. I selfishly wanted him to live, but I also knew that it was the best thing for him given his condition in his last few months.

Heinz was the runt of the litter and the last one of the litter to be sold. I remember the day we bought him as if it were yesterday. My mom and I were only going to go “look” at him, but once we saw him, we knew that he was going home with us that day. We put him in a box on the floor of the back seat of the car for the 60-mile drive home. We didn’t even get out of the neighborhood before he started to whimper. That was all we needed to hear, so we picked him up and he curled up on my mom’s lap for the ride home. He had us wrapped around his little paw for the next 16.5 years. He, like our previous dachshunds, had his own personality and brought so much joy and laughter to our family, and he truly was a member of our family. He lived such a simple, yet fulfilling life…..eat, sleep, play, and walk. Oh, how he loved to take walks! You couldn’t even say the word or spell it without him going nuts. That was probably his single biggest joy in life, especially in his later years. He was also one of the world’s most photographed dogs, so I am in the process of making a scrapbook to remember him. I miss him terribly. I am such a softie when it comes to dogs, and I especially have a soft spot in my heart for older dogs. I heard you on Laura Ingraham’s show last week and got teared up just listening to you two talk about your dogs. I’m sure reading “Rescuing Sprite” will do the same. Thank you for writing it and sharing your story.

Susie from IN