I am reading “Rescuing Sprite” and I can’t control my emotions. I have had dogs all my life. We now have two cockers and we put our Molly down after 17 1/2 years Sept 8th. My husband built a casket for her, chalked and painted it and she is in our back yard under a bird feeder. She had one eye, the other one wasn’t good either, an enlarged heart and arthritis. But oh what a dog. She traveled with us to Florida about 15 times, to Cape Cod, Colorado, and everywhere else we went she went.

We rescued our Alfie from Ilcockerrescue . He had been walking the streets of Chicago and was put in a kill facility near the Ind. state line. Thank goodness they called ilcockerrescue. We have had him about 4 1/2 yrs now and he is about 9. Then my son-in-law sent a picture of a buff cocker 1 11/2 years ago and said that the lady was taking her to the Indianapolis Humane Society. Well, I have seen pictures of empty cages there, they don’t give the dogs a chance especially one that was “turned in”. Well we have our lovely and energetic Trena and she is a joy. Totally different from Alfie but man do we love our dogs. In the 1970’s I went to our local shelter and they told me that this German Shepard was going to be put down the next day. Well, I brought her home and we had her for about four years. She had a terrible skin problem that caused her to itch constantely. No vet could figure out what it was. After taking to have her put down 4 times the fourth time I finally did. I regret it to this day and that was so many years ago. I feel that if I had known about feeding my dogs a raw, homemade diet I may have been able to cure her of this skin problem.

But what did we know about feeding dogs at that time. nothing… just feed them dog food. I now am an advocate for a BARF diet which is Bones and Raw food. I urge you to go to ilcockerrescue.org and check on the BARF diet. I have always felt awful that my previous dogs ate the same old thing day after day. Now I feed them REAL food. They love their squash, inc. the skin, raw chicken, etc. All the information is in the cocker website. I also keep some healthy dog food on hand with no byproducts in them. I am so sorry for your loss and of having Sprite for such a short time. I am sharing your grief as I sit here at my computer in tears and all choked up. I will be finishing your book today and am anxious to learn about Griffen. A fellow dog lover….

Rita from WI