My husband, Kevin is a great fan of Mr. Levin and even though I have never listened to his show, I have read “Rescuing Sprite.” I want to thank Mr. Levin for sharing his story as it is everyone’s story who has ever loved a dog. I received as a gift from my husband for Christmas and I was only a few pages in before I had to get a tissue and that’s how I finished it, with tissues in hand and tears flowing. It brought back all of my feelings of loss over every dog that I have lost over the years to old age or illness but it touched me most greatly over the loss of our Beloved Tika as we lost her only 6 months before Mr. Levin lost Sprite on July 6, 2006. We only had our Tika with us for a little less than 5 years and her death was very sudden. She had gone out to do her usual morning business, chased a cat from the yard, stopped at the edge of the property proud of her accomplishment and then suddenly she fell to the ground. At first, I thought she had slipped in the mud and was worried that she had hurt her legs (this was always a worry because she had pins in her front leg from an attack by an adult dog when she was only 3 months old, she had been through a lot of medical procedures before we adopted her from rescue when she was 6 months old).

She tried to get up and looked over her shoulder at me as if to say “Mommy, help me” and then lay her head on the ground. By the time I got to her, she was gone. Her death was almost more than my husband and I could bear but we also knew that she was all about love. Despite all that she had been through in her first 6 months of life, you would never have known it about her because everyone, two legged or four legged that she met was her best friend. She was a Rottweiler/Shepherd mix and her size at 128 lbs was rather intimidating at first for some folks but once they saw her do her “Tika Dance” she would win them over. She would wiggle her tail end so hard that we would worry that she would knock herself over but she never did. Tika was an angel on earth and she would want us to share all of the love that we had for her with another needy dog so that’s what we did.

On August 12, 2006, we brought home her little brother from a rescue group (Janet’s Rescue and Placements), another Rottweiler/Shepherd mix who we named Marco. At 3 months he had already suffered more than any baby should when he and his siblings were left in a box by the side of a busy NC highway in 90 degree heat. He is so like his big sister, Tika both in temperament and behavior that we sometimes think that when he does something that reminds us so much of Tika that it must be something that her spirit has taught him. We think that she would approve of our choice for her little brother and we know that she would have adored him and him her.

Thank you, Mr. Levin, for sharing your story and may Sprite’s spirit stay alive in your heart and in the hearts of all who knew him and may you all meet again at the Rainbow Bridge.

Amy from VA