Dear Mark:

I just had the pleasure of reading your book, Rescuing Sprite. What a wonderful story. As a dog lover, I cannot recall a time in my life when I didn’t have a dog, from a toddler right up until today as an adult. They have brought me and my family so much joy it is undescribable. My husband and I have never had children; so our pets were always treated as such. We had some heartbreak in our family this year. My mother passed away at age 89 in January, my best friend and dog lover as well. Since she lived with us, when my husband and I weren’t home our dogs became “her dogs”. It was a beautiful arrangement.

Unfortunately, in May, my older brother who lived in Rochester, NY passed away unexpectedly. When I got the news that he was ill I flew out on the next flight and my husband drove down the next day with our toy poodle Freddie. We have always had poodles, Freddie being our 3rd. During the funeral we didn’t want to leave Freddie alone in my brother’s house so we dropped him off at a friends house to stay with their dog.

Before they left the house they let him outside in their yard to do his business and he somehow got out from under their fence and ran away. We never found him. We think someone took him (mistaking him for a puppy since he was so small and not neutered, but he was in fact 9 years old) Mark I have to say I don’t know what I was feeling or what was worse, my brother passing away, or my beloved pet being lost. We left no stone unturned, posters, ads in the local papers, radio stations, reward,etc. My brother’s friends all rallied together going to shelters, vets offices, with no results. It was the Memorial Day weekend and we thought that perhaps whoever had him didn’t know what to do with him as all the area places were closed. He had no tags on him. A big mistake on my part. I just cannot believe that someone would take someone elses pet and not return them. My husband and I put 100 miles on our car driving around and around heartbroken.

We made the 7 hour journey back home three days later without him. I don’t think we spoke the entire ride. When we arrived home it was worse, his dish, his toys, his bed. Words can’t describe what we felt. My only hope now is that he was as lucky as Sprite and found a wonderful loving home like yours and is being cared for the way Sprite was. I waited three months with the hope of hearing something, but no call ever came. Of course we relented and got another puppy, also a toy poodle, this one is black, all our others were white. His name is Jake. He is a wonderful dog and helped us get over our loss. I hoped that he would have gotten the chance to meet his brother – but I guess that wasn’t in the cards.

Mark, I am so happy that your friends and family encouraged you to write this book. I enjoyed it, through the tears, but it was so heartwarming and inspirational.

I wish you luck in your life with your dogs and family. Rest assured that I will be one of your biggest ambassdors to spread the word about Rescuing Sprite.

Fondly,

Maryann from NY