Dear Mark,
My name is Amanda Haley and I am 10 years old. My daddy listens to your show all the time, and he is going to order me a copy of your book about Your dog Sprite. I hope to meet you some day and have you sign the book. I wanted to send you something my dad has in a frame under the picture of our two dogs that I grew up with when I was little. Their names were Luke and Sheena and I loved them very very much. So here is the thing I wanted to send you, and I hope you enjoy it as much as my daddy does.

TRIBUTE TO A DOG
The fallowing is taken from a speech made by former Senater George Graham Vest of Missouri. It was delivered in 1870 when he was acting as a lawyer in a suit against a man who had killed the dog of his client. After the jury listened to Vest’s impassioned speech, his client received damages of $150.
The one absolutely unselfish friend that a man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous, is his dog.
A man’s dog stands by him in poverty, in health and sickness. He will sleep on the cold ground where the wintry winds blow and the snow drives fiercely, if only he may be near his master’s side. He will lick the sores and wounds that com in encounter with the roughness of the world. He gaurds the sleep of his pauper master as if he were a prince.
When all other friends desert, he remains . When riches take wings and reputation falls to pieces, he is a constant in his love as the sun in it’s journey through the heavens.
If misfortune drives the master forth an outcast in the world, friendless and homeless, the faithful dog asks no higher privilege than that of accompanying him to gaurd against danger, to fight against his enemies.
And when the last scene of all comes, and death takes the master in it’s embrace, and his body laid away in the cold ground, no matter if all other friends pursue their way, there by the graveside will the noble dog be found, his head between his paws, his eye sad, but open in alert watchfulness, faithful and true, even in death.

Auther unknown

Amanda from MN