I just read your book having found it on a bookstall at Leeds railway station. I hope lots of other people find it there too. Thank you for being brave enough to write it. So many people are afraid to say how much they grieve for their lost pets because they think people won’t respect their feelings. Hopefully your book will help such people to know it’s OK to grieve deeply for our beloved pets.

Your Sprite looks very like one of our golden retrievers, Tuppy, who died 15 years ago now. She used to follow me wherever I went and was very gentle and sweet natured. I’ve had dogs all my life (I’m in my sixties now) but they are all still with me in spirit.

I can’t tell you about all of them but we now have two rescue dogs – JD, an 11-year-old Welsh Springer Spaniel, who is a glorious madcap like many spaniels, and Kita, a 12-year-old Japanese Akita x German Shepherd. Kita was very scared when we first had her seven years ago and had clearly had a bad time in the past, but years of love and care later she is calm and happy, and people now see her laughing instead of commenting always as they used to when we first had her on how very sad her expression was.

We got Kita (and a dear elderly dog Tanya who had the most wonderful smile you ever saw, and who died five years ago after six years of happy life with us) from the Leeds branch of the British national charity The Dogs Trust, who never put any healthy dog put to sleep. They re-home thousands of dogs every year and if they can’t find homes for them they care for them themselves. They have no State support and live entirely on donations. Could some of the proceeds of the UK sales of your book go to the Dogs Trust? I expect they could help sell copies of the book, too.

Pat from England