Mark,
I just had to send this to you after reading your book “Rescuing Sprite” and I could not put it down until I finished. I have to tell you there were times I could not see the pages for crying so much. Your story touched my heart so much I am so sorry for your loss.

I have attached some photos of my two babies I have now and an email I sent to a website call “Blind dogs.com. I will get more into that later, first I wanted to tell you about my sweet girl Buffy that I lost in 1999.

On May 24,1990, I went to a Mary Kay makeup party and left with this cute little ball of fur that I did not plan to come home with. The lady hosting the party had just gotten a new puppy about a month before from a puppy mill. Well I said something about I would love to have an inside dog for myself as I have never had one.. Growing up we always had the outside dogs. Buffy was only a couple of weeks old and did not have her teeth yet. She was in terrible shape.. She had a eye infection, worms and they had cut her tail off and it was infected badly.. Needless to say we reported the dog mill and had them shut down. She only weighed one pound and so fragile, but I nursed her back to health and had her for 10 short years. I live alone and it was just her and me and I cannot explain to anyone the special bond we had with each other. The ladies where I worked at that time gave me a puppy shower because I never had children. Well her health was bad off and on thru the years but what finally got her was Cancer in the stomach.. That was the worse few months of my life. The vet worked so hard trying to help her and she was at the vet almost every weekend for treatment but in the end there was nothing else we could do to help my “baby girls”. It was a weekly thing, wondering if this will be the last trip and will I have to put her down.. It was killing me and all I wanted was the best for her.

Well the last trip to the vet she sat in the passenger seat looking at me with big tears in her eyes as she knew what was coming and saying her good-byes to me.. I held her when they gave her the injection and I was the last face she saw and she did get to kiss me good-bye. I have her ashes to this day in a special place on a shelf and I will never forget her…

I have two wonderful dogs now but there will never be a bond like Buffy and I had. I adopted Suzi at PETSMART and she will be eight this month.. She is so special and such a loving girl.. She is part beagle and cocker spaniel. As you can read in the email I sent to the blinddog.com, Roscoe is the black dog and we do not know what kind of dog he is.. He just went blind all of sudden this fall and they wanted me to take him to a specialist whom I cannot afford to do being alone. The CAT scan alone would be $900.00. It breaks my heart to think that it could be something major and surgery could fix. But I just give him all the love I can and cherish each day I have left with him. Every day I come home thinking will my boy still be alive and is he ok.. I know one day I come home he may be gone or I will have to make that terrible decision is it time to put him down now. I pray everyday for the good Lord to take him peacefully in his sleep so I will not have to make a decision and not have to put him down myself.

Well again I enjoyed your book so much and I hope the heeling process is making each day a little easier for you and your family missing your beloved “Sprite.”
Yes, I want to tell you about my boy Roscoe. My mom passed away in May of 2002 and in July Roscoe showed up in my yard and would not leave. Well I already had Susie (the white and tan) that I adopted from Pet Smart so I could not afford to keep him. My dad wanted to see him and as you can guess he kept Roscoe.. Daddy called him his Angel dog and he was so good and gave my dad so much love and happiness. My dad passed away June of 2004 and I promised I would keep Roscoe and take good care of him.. About two months ago I noticed he was having a hard time finding his treat when I was giving it to him.. I noticed he was not getting around good so I took him to the vet. They said he as blind and that they thought he had a brain tumor. Well I am single and live alone and do not have much money so I could not afford to take him to the specialists that they suggested. So I have been going on the internet trying to find ways to help him and myself out to make Roscoe as comfortable as possible. I noticed a lot of you are saying your pets have SARDS and I have never heard of this. I was wanting some more information to see if that may be what Roscoe has. I took him back to the vet last week because he is really depressed and they gave him some medicine to help with that.. Any information I get will be greatly appreciated and it is so nice to know that our special pets are being loved and cared for so well..

Elaine from NC