Mark,

I’ve just fininshed reading your book “Rescuing Sprite.” What a touching story.

I lost a dog in May of 2001. He had been with me for 16 years. As I watched him grow weaker and weaker, I knew his time was short but I kept telling myself, just a little while longer.
Besides, the meds seemed to be helping.

I had to go on a business trip to Florida for a few days in May of 01. My husband was left with Bruno and our other dog Brandy. Two days after I left, my beautiful Bruno went quietly under the deck where he died two hours later. I’ve always thought maybe he was afraid I had abandoned him.

Knowing that I could not handle all the meetings if I knew he had died, my husband told me he was doing OK each time I called to check on him. He wanted to spare me the pain of facing this alone.

When I returned, he broke the news. I cried for hours and I cried every day for three weeks in a row but the grief didn’t stop then, only the tears.

Bruno was special because he had been there for me in 1993 when I had found out about my X husband and the “other woman.” Bruno would jump on the bed when I cried and gently lay his big furry head on my chest and look up at me with his big brown eyes as if to say “don’t worry Mom, I still love you.”

When my X moved out Bruno was there to protect me. He would go with me on trips to visit my family. He rode with his head out the window, the wind blowing through his long hair. He made everyone laugh.

Once when we were visiting my cousin, Bruno ran through her house and crashed through the bathroom door, jumped into the bath tub where her husband was taking a bath! He loved water and he knew what was going on! He wanted a bath too.

One year to the day after Bruno died I found an old roll of film. I took it to be developed and found a picture I had taken of him
lying in his favorite spot by the back gate. This is the spot where my husband buried him and we later planted a small magnolia tree.

I adopted a another dog a few months later. He had been abandoned and was found wandering on the side of the road. He was skinny and his hair was matted to the bone.

That was 8 years ago. You should see him now!
I’ve attached a picture (He looks a lot like Griffen) His weight has almost doubled. He sleeps at my side and follows every move I make.

I have a picture of Bruno and the caption under it says “Grieve not nor speak of me with tears, but laugh & talk of me as if I were beside you…I loved you so….twas Heaven here with you.”

Mark, I think that’s exactly what Sprite and Bruno would tell both of us.

God Bless you,

Teresa from Ohio