Mark,

I haven’t read Rescuing Sprite…yet.  I just know I’ll have tears running down my face.  We had a little mixed breed (way mixed) dog that touched our family deeply and I would like to tell a little about her.

Take care.

Honey was a favorite of mine and my husband and we miss her everyday.  One day I was out shopping and thought that I would stop at a local flea market just to look around.  I never went in the store because in the parking lot close to the door was a wire cage with puppies inside that someone brought up there to give away.  There was about six or seven inside just jumping around and trying to get my attention, they all broke my heart, but what did catch my attention was the puppy sitting in the corner by itself.  She was the tiniest thing.  When she was sitting down she probably measured six inches from the floor to the top of her head.  She was looking at me but giving out a little growl also.  I had to take her home.  I reached inside to pick her up and she nipped me on the thumb.  My plans didn’t change; I was still taking her home.  I held her, petted her and told her that everything would be o.k.  She lay close to my neck and I could feel her relax.  I knew that she was not afraid anymore.  I did not want to think of what she had been through before being put in that cage.  I went back to my car and she lay down in my lap and did not move from there the entire drive home.  I knew she needed care right away.  She was so thin and literally covered with fleas (I guess flea market is an apt name).  She was one of the ugliest beautiful little pups that I have ever seen.  She had blondish medium length hair that that could only be described as permanent bed head.  When I took her inside the house my husband said “what’s that?”  I’m thinking that truer words had never been spoken.  I set her down and she promptly went to the corner of the room and stayed there. My husband went to her, bent down to pick her up, and she nipped him on the thumb.  After giving her the care she needed right away in ridding her of the fleas with a mild puppy shampoo that I already had I took her straight to the vet.  We had her for many years and loved her so much.  She was the best.  She was always a small dog and she never did any prettier but in our hearts and minds she was a best of show winner.  She was our best friend, our comfort, our protector, our own little stand up comedian and the best listener anyone ever had.  When she died it was one of the most awful days of our lives.  There was this great big hole in our lives.  I had never seen my husband cry until that day.  It has been eleven years but it doesn’t seem like that long at all.

Susan from TX