Dear Mark:
My husband and I picked up your book at our Border’s Book Store and I sat in one of their comfortable chairs to begin reading. Well, I knew this would be a book I would truly enjoy, but as emotional as I am about our animals, past and present, I would have to do it alone. I chose to read it in the comfort of our bedroom after my husband left for work. What a powerful read. I sat here and bawled my eyes out, wiped my nose continuously, trying to get myself under control. You are a credit to the reading public. My dad brought my first dog into my life when I was 8 yrs. old and I’ve always had one to three dogs ever since. They are so precious to have in a family. My mother always tells me “not to trust anyone that doesn’t love animals” and she is so right.

We just recently lost our precious daschund “Booger” on October 9, 2007, we moved from a home in another city to our home now and we’ve always had our dogs spayed and neutered. That was in 2005, he did ok, but just ballooned up and you know how stressful that is on their long bodies, he ended up throwing up so many times then had bleeding when he would try to use the bathroom from the other end. The most pathetic thing that just broke me down was that he would stand at his water bowl and stare at it then lay down with his chin on the edge. If he chose to drink anything it was one to two laps and then he would throw up a little bit later. I asked the vet why he would do that and he told me that Booger knew he needed water, but was afraid to as the outcome was sickness. I thought to myself, people say dogs are dumb, boy, they are way far from it. I rushed him down to the vet and they examined him, gave him some meds to make him comfortable and that evening around 7:30, the night vet was checking the cages, she walked by his and he seemed to be if you could call it ok, but not in distress, in the 10 minutes it took her to check the other areas, she walked back by his cage and he had passed away. Of course, she called us with the horrible news and most of our grown kids were at the house and they saw my eyes fill with tears as they are doing now, they immediately knew. We had a crying session and our second son went out the front door and leaned up against his car to grieve. It’s terrible when our pets leave us but as you said in your book, they bring and give us such joy while they are here.

We had him cremated and he shares the fireplace mantle with our red min-pin Sweetie and her box. I could go on and on about the stories of our other pets Mark, but it would become like a novel, but our red min-pin was chewed up by the neighbors’ dog at out old house and she was my husbands’ favorite. To condense the story, I had to go next door to seperate her from the chow and I told her to slide back under the fence, Mark, I was shocked, she layed on her back, put her head under the fence and worked her way under like she was a mechanic sliding under a car, you could have knocked me over with a feather. Anyway, she limped over to my husband and we rushed her to the vet and the news was not encouraging. He had torn into her rib cage which put a hole in her thoracic cavity which caused the labored breathing. They tried drain tubes and she only lasted two more days, our vet (not the emergency ones) gave her some anesthetic and discovered the original damage and more, he told me there would be no reason to wake her up.

My husband drives a truck for a living here in Tx. locally, he met us on the service road and four of us at the time grieved together. So, it’s a very tough thing to go through as our beloved pets leave us, but we have such precious memories of them all as they live on in our hearts. Thank you Mark for writing this book, you touched my heart and I’m sure everyone else that has read it.

Thank you so much for being the caring individual that you are to have given Sprite the last two years of his life a very loving time with your wonderful family. Your wife reminds me of myself, I would have done the same thing because I am that head strong about animals. Give her a thank you too along with your children. We would love to hear from you if you wouldn’t mind, our email address is mlssls@sbcglobal.net. Thank you again for sharing this part of your lives with those beautiful canines.

My husband listens to your radio show daily, he says it is awesome. When I’m not tied up with everything around our house, we have four (left) grown children trying to get out on their own. We aren’t the type of parents that shoo their children to the curb at age 18, they are getting their finances in order to move out. I do try to get in on listening to your show while my husband does. You are truly a credit to your profession.

Susan & Monty from TX

P.S. We have two dogs left, a black min-pin Betsy and a red daschund Buddy. He’s 11 and she’ll be 6 yrs. old in April.