My “grandson” Jinx is a mixture of Dalmation and Australian Shepherd, adopted at North Shore Animal League on Long Island at age 10 weeks. Never had a dog in my life until age 56. I read Rescuing Sprite, all the while thinking how in God’s name can someone deal with something like this. Jinx iis now 6 yrs old and l would be lost without him. Whenever I pick up my keys, he assumes he’s coming with me (and he’s right). No matter what errand I’m running, if I can bring Jinx, he’s right there with me. I wear a uniform and while driving Jinx sits straight up in the front passenger seat like a king. I can’t tell you how many people have commented that I look like his chauffeur, uniform and all. I drop Jinx off at my brother’s house during the day while I go to work. My bro is retired and him and Jinx spend the day at the park or down at the beach. As soon as I get home with Jinx, he sits right in front of the stove and waits for me to cook dinner for us (while we listen to the Mark Levin Show). When he sees a baby carriage, he runs to it, sits down next to it, and licks the baby. He knows more people in the neighborhood than I do. I had triple bypass surgery in ’04 and my one worry was that he would jump up on me when I got home (he’s about 85-90 lbs now). When I got home, Jinx just licked my hand and whenever I rested during the day, he would lie on the bed next to me and lick my hand. Funny story, I went to Vegas last year and on calling home, my husband told me Jinx was like a lost soul. I told him to put me on speaker phone which he did and I talked to Jinx. When I called the second day, and asked to be put on speaker, my husband said “no way” because when I was on speaker the prior day, Jinx ran all through the house lookinig for me and when he couldn’t find me, he just moped around the house. (I haven’t left him again for more than a day).

Eileen from NY