Mark,

I have tried to finish your book several times now but I just can’t stop crying it reminds me so much of our beloved Pepper and how much I still miss her.

We met Pepper at the Franklin Twp Animal Shelter-My wife and I got there right before they closed and while there were many wonderful dogs there; I just couldn’t take my eyes off of a Tan/BlackShepherd/Beagle mix. She was so frightened she sat in the back of the cage and wouldn’t even look at us. We took her home…She had been abused and lived in the wild for 6 months. We really loved her, we got rid of her fleas and mange and got her fixed. She even started to bark which she hadn’t done in the first six months we had her.

She hunted every groundhog, squirrel and snake on our property and had this funny way of laughing that I have never heard before. We took her on trips in the US and Canada. She had an amazing way of communicating with me, she would run into the living room cock her head a certain way and I knew exactly what she wanted it was amazing!

She got sick right before she turned nine. it started with severe food allergies and eventually developed into an immune deficiency in which she was losing red blood cells. We kept her going another 5 years with treatment,pills special food everything…..

Finally she had to have an operation that was iffy but she had to have it. She died after surgery. The weird thing was that about 5 minutes before the vet called to say she died my wife and I both heard a howl that no one else heard.

It was a VERY painful experience. About 6 months later we got a new friend a Basenji mix named Sable-

Thanks for All you do!

Jeff from NJ