hey mark,

well its me josh again. i just finished reading the copy of rescuing
sprite my wife got me for my birthday. i gotta tell you mark that is the
most beautiful book i’ve ever read.

I too am still dealing with the loss of my best friend dusty. he was a black cocker spaniel mix. he had beautiful
brown eyes and long black eyelashes. he was my buddy. i adopted him from
the la county animal shelter when i was in jr high school and he lived until
summer of this year. i woke one morning to my neighbor calling into me that
my mom and dog were being attacked by a pit bull. i raced outside and my
neighbors and my mom we’re trying desperatly to rescue dusty from the jaws
of this mad pitbull. through the screams of my family and neighbors i knew
that i had to act fast. so i took my pocket knife from my pocket and went
into protection mode and was forced to kill the pitbull for the life and
safety of my mom and my dog. we rushed him to the vet and after xrays and a
mri we found out his back legs had been torn from their sockets and his
bladder was punctured as well as he had some internal bleeding. the dr
told us given his age and condition even if he survived surgery to repair
the damage his quality of life would never be the same. i made the most
agonizing descision of my life to have him put to sleep. i had a few
minutes with him privatly where i thanked him for his love and companionship
all those years and his loyalty, i told him ill miss him and never forget
him. the dr came in and performed the euthinasia. i help him close the
entire time and then later that day burried him in my backyard. i have
taken some comfort in the fact that he died peacefully and painlessly with
people who loved him instead of in the jaws of that monster. however i
still felt some guilt for not trying the other alternatives even though i
know that it would not have been the right thing for dusty.

Anyways i dont want to bore you anymore with my story but i tell you it so that you can
better understand my greatfulness for you writing this book. i laughed many
times while reading as well as cried through the last few chapters. our
dogs truely are our family members. but this book has helped me with still
dealing with the loss of my dusty. i have only talked a couple times with
you on the phone and met you once at the freedom concert but i listen to you
everyday that i can when im stateside and no deployed overseas. and now
having read this book i feel i know u much better and have an even deeper
respect for you. and consider you a briefly known but deep friend. god
bless you and your family mark including pepsi and griffen. and im sure
sprite was there to welcome my dusty to heaven. once again mark thank you
for writing this it helped and god bless you and yours

Sgt. Smith from CA