I just finished reading Rescuing Sprite and it touched my heart in many ways. Several years ago I began volunteer work with dog rescues and even helped begin a Golden Retriever rescue in northern Ohio (Golden Treasures Golden Retriever Rescue, Inc.). When my husband was transferred out of Ohio, I could no longer do the work of pulling dogs out of kill shelters, transporting dogs to medical facilities, screening applicants, and most importantly, fostering dogs until new homes were identified. While we are now living in Germany, we are Americans who brought our four Golden Retrievers, two of them rescues, across the sea with us. As with Sprite, we lost our oldest rescue Rosie after a couple of years; she died New Year’s evening suddenly and quite unexpectedly. We were all in the room with Rosie as she startled awake from a nap, went into an agonizing stretch for a few seconds and then was gone before we could ever reach her. Though initially I felt robbed of this gentle, sweet life, it soon became apparent how much God was with us that evening. She might have died an hour earlier while we were away at dinner, making us feel guilty forever that we were not with her. Or her health may have declined to the point where we had to make that decision to euthanize her. God spared us and now has her with him. Someone once told me that dogs don’t go to heaven because they don’t have souls. I couldn’t disagree more – heaven would not be complete without our dogs. Thanks, Mark, for writing a book that describes so well the bond between people and dogs. I hope your book inspires many more people to adopt rescue dogs. It’s families like yours that rescue groups always look for in placing these special friends. We’ll be returning to the U.S. at some point and I’ll pick up rescue work again. Though the work is emotionally draining at times, the need is too great not to help dogs find love returned in exchange for their devotion.

Kathy from Germany