Mark I haven’t as yet had the chance to purchase your book but rest assured I will own that book soon. From what I gathered you also rescued your Sprite. We rescued our Rosie. She was just a mutt, a puppy that my wife saw pouncing around in a rather over grown hay field. She was near some of her dead litter mates. Never knew what happened to the mother. My wife screamed that I had to stop and she literally jumped out of the moving vehicle and ran to grab that puppy. Rosie was just skin and bones and I thought she might not make it. But, she did and she became the joy of our lives. She looked like she had some German Shepherd in her and some other things as well. The other things were what got her and we didn’t even know it.

When Rosie turned 5 years old she began to cough a lot. One day as we were playing outside I threw her ball and she ran after it as usual. She suddenly began to stumble and stagger as if she were drunk. I had no clue as to what was wrong with her but she recovered quickly. I sort of let it pass until I saw it happening more often. I took her to my school mate who had become a Vet. Bruce took a look at her and told me he was going to do a blood test but he saw immediately that she had heart worms. He said she could live for years longer or die in a few days. My heart sank. She never complained never whimpered she just looked at me with trust and love in her eyes. He said he was going to try something with her. He was going to give her a really low dose of heart worm medicine and see if he could kill off some of the heart worms and not kill her at the same time. I asked him how I would know if she was in real distress. He said she would begin to cough and begin to pass out without running.

I took her home that evening and for a change we let her sleep in our kitchen. I heard her cough some times but then settle down. Mark, I was a coward. I knew she was going to die but I just couldn’t be responsible for her death. I feel so badly now that I didn’t just go ahead and let Bruce just put her down with a shot. Rosie died in her sleep sometime that night. I never heard her thrash around or anything; I guess she just stopped breathing. I was wakeful most of the night and I heard nothing. My children and my wife were all in the kitchen crying as I took her outside and buried her in our back yard. I spent the rest of the day constructing a proper cross for her because I know in my heart that all dogs go to heaven. Gosh Mark I am crying as I write this and Rosie has been gone for 6 years now. I have a new friend now, a small Schnauzer who loves me to death. But you know we never replace our friends, they can never be replaced. We just meet new friends.

Yours sincerely
Mitch from CO