Dear Mark,
My wife and I had to let our 14 year old dachshund go last night. She was the best dog I’ve ever had and it was the hardest decision I think I’ve ever had to make.

We welcomed Maggie into our home in January of 1994. Our shitzu had passed about 6 months before so it was time for a new addition. When my wife said she wanted a dog I said I wanted a Dachshund and she said she didn’t care what it was she just wanted a dog but that she wasn’t buying the first one we looked at. We put out the word to our clients that we were looking for a pure bread and one day this client came in and said “I know where a little girl is” and gave us the address and phone number. We called the breeder and made an appointment for the next Saturday to see this little girl. When we arrived about 8 big dogs came to the truck to greet us and we could hear a lot of dogs barking in the back yard. This place was filthy and when we entered the house the smell was so bad we just couldn’t hardly stand it. I looked down in this child’s play pen and here was this cute little puppy not much bigger than the palm of my hand and a scruffy little puddle . I told my wife to give the women a check and lets get this dog out of here because I just knew if we didn’t she would surely die here, not realizing it was a puppy mill. On the way home we decided to name her Maggie Pearl because she was born on Pearl Harbor Day of 1993.

Well a few days after we brought our new bundle of joy home I started to notice that there was something just wasn’t right with her. We took her to our Vet and he looked her over and said she has Mange mites, Ear mites and Worms. “I’ll do what I can but I don’t hold out to much hope so just take her home and love her.” Well she made it through all that and then a contracted an internal parasite about 7 years later that almost killed her and the same Vet helped bring her through that after 5 days in hospital.

She was and a tough, brave and trustworthy little dog, but she couldn’t escape old age. She lived a long and wonderful 14 year life and will forever be in mine and my wife’s hearts and a great part of our lives.

I purchased your Signed book for my wife for Christmas and as soon as she is finished with it I want to read it.
Thank you Mark for your site and all that you do. It has been a great help to start the healing process.
Maggie Pearl’s Dad,

Craig from CA