Mark,

Thank you for sharing Sprite with your readers. I must admit I was first attracted to your book because Sprite looks so much like my Casey. I’ve attached a couple of photos. My Casey is a lot bigger, but their faces and coloring are similar. After skimming a few pages, I realized there were some similarities our situations and decided I had to read the entire book.

Prior to last January, I had two personal dogs and had fostered a number of dogs for a local rescue group. One of my personal dogs is almost 13 and is not in good health, so my younger dog, rescued 5 years ago, needed a companion and playmate. Having foster dogs was a good way to help out the rescue and provide company for my younger dog. Last January I rescued “Casey” from the high-kill shelter in Memphis. I’ve never met a more loving dog big dog who thinks he’s a lap dog. Most people want puppies or small dogs, so Casey wasn’t the top pick at our adoption days. In July I found out that my older dog had cancer. Two weeks later I took Casey to the vet our rescue group uses because he hadn’t been putting weight on one of his back legs. The vet said Casey had severe case of hip dysplasia and suggested that I consider putting him down if the rescue could not afford a total hip replacement. I was devastated. We estimated Casey’s age at about 18 months. I knew we couldn’t afford the total hip replacement and I couldn’t imagine how I would be able to put down a dog as loving and lively as Casey. He’d probably had the best 6 months of his young life, but he deserved so much more. A second opinion from my vet was definitely in order. Although the diagnosis was the same and hip replacement was the best option, my vet suggested the FHO, which is about 25% of the cost of a new hip. My vet isn’t certified to do hip replacements and there was only one in Memphis and he didn’t give discounts to rescue groups. I started making flyers and contacting my friends. The rescue group featured him on the web site. I contacted veterinarian school on at UT hoping they might work with the rescue. They were willing, but their success rate was only 50%. Through donations we were able to raise enough to have the FHO procedure on both hips and Casey had his first surgery in late October. By doing one, we can determine if it was successful and decide whether the other hip should be replaced or receive the same FHO procedure. My older dog has had two surgeries for the cancer and is doing ok for now. We’ve been told the cancer will come back, but we just take it a day at a time. Casey is now a permanent member of my family. Needless to say, it’s been an emotional year in my home too, but I am so blessed to have three happy loving fuzzy “kids”.

As I’m sure most animal lovers did, I cried throughout your book, but I am so grateful you shared your experiences. Not only does the book touch the heart, but maybe others who read it will be reminded to support the animal rescue groups in their area. I hope you have many wonderful years with Pepsi and Griffen!

Karin from TN