This is our lovable child. Jackie is 15 years old now and is a rescue. The picture on the left shows him about a year old. On the right, 10 years old. He is a member of the family and lives like a king in our home.

Our son, Paul, rescued him one evening coming home from work in 1992. Jack ran into the street right in front of Paul’s car. Paul stopped to see if he was OK and noticed that he was pretty thin and had no collar. He was sure he had been abandoned. He brought him home and fed him and took him to the vet the next day for a check-up. The doctor estimated his age to be about 6 months old. We posted flyers around the neighborhood and no one claimed him. It is hard to believe that there are people out there that abandon dogs and cats.

He named him Jack as he almost became a flapjack. He has heart and liver problems and cataracts now and isn’t expected to live much longer. Amazingly he doesn’t have arthritis and his lungs are so clear for his age. Our fear is having to put him down should he become stressed from pain or have breathing problems. It would just kill us to have to do that. I pray that it doesn’t happen. I hope he will go to sleep one night and pass away peacefully. Not looking forward to that either.

We had two dogs before Jack. The first one was Dolly, a Shepard & Husky mix and our second dog was Kelso an Alaskan Malamute. Both dogs were just as sweet as Jack and we cried many many months after their passing. It is not easy. Mark, we were in bed listening to your story (in the dark) about Sprite and how it was so difficult to put him down; you could have heard a pin drop in our room. I was in tears and I suppose my husband was too. We knew what you must have gone through.

Sharlene  from CA