Mark,
I received your book as a gift from my son & new daughter in-law this past
Christmas. I finally had a chance, while on vacation, to read it. It was very
touching and heart warming and it brought back many memories of my dogs..
In my 26 years of marriage we have had two dogs one an Irish Setter, Cigi, who
after a long life of 14 ½ years we had to put down after many months of praying
that she would just some day not wake up. It tore me apart and swore I would not get another dog. I was right we did not and then a little more than a year later a stray Gordon Setter showed up in the middle of our cold MN winter outside hunting birds in our shrubs out front and running through our neighborhood. I often took strays in because
we lived so close to a highway I worried they may wonder to close and get hit. I took him in and called the local authorities to report the dog as being found & left my name and number along with calling local stores incase anyone was looking for him. It took almost a full week before hearing from (Micks) the dogs family but they showed up, the woman was not thrilled when picking him up she was pregnant and had a little one in her
hand and said Mick was her husbands dog and said that the dog was way too much
work. I then mentioned that if they were interested in giving him up we (my son, daughter, and husband) would be interested in taking him. Of course a week later
they were on our door step. He was ours. It took weeks of training, love, anti-anxiety
medication and lots patience but he became a very big part of our family. We were
the third owners of Mick in his year and a half. No one ever took the time to really
give him the attention he needed. We only had him another seven and a half years
when he suddenly was diagnosed with a heart murmur. Three years ago he died of
what seems to be heart failure at the young age of 8 ½ yrs. I too feel very responsible,
my father was dying from lung cancer at the time and we had just placed him in a
Hospice Home, I felt I was so busy with caring for my father I was ignoring Mick.
The morning my father died I had brought Mick in for a check up and they took xrays and found they needed to drain fluid from his chest. His heart was enlarged to triple the size I decided to make an appt. for further testing at the Univ. of MN. the vet tried to convince me (heart broken and crying from loosing my father just hours earlier) that Mick may not survive the tests but I still scheduled the appt. We went home and a few hours later Mick went downstairs collapsed and died, on the same day as my father. I then decided that Mick did not want us to go through any more suffering and that my father (the dog lover that he was) needed a loving dog with him to go through the pearly gates of heaven.
To this day we have not gotten a dog but instead I’ve begun taking in other peoples dogs when they go on vacation. It amazes me that know matter what size the dog Yorkie, West Island Terrier, Yellow & Chocolate Labs, Spaniels, & Shepoo’s etc. they all have similar instincts that remind me of Cigi and Mick. I enjoy loving and spoiling these dogs for the short time I have them and for now I am happy. Some day I am pretty sure that we will get another dog. For now I am happy, I have a Grand Puppy a Beagle named BLUE and oh, he will be spoiled!

Julie from MN