We had our Gracie for thirteen and a half years. Last week we had to put her to sleep. Her poor hips couldn’t take it any longer. She was a collie,shepard mix and got the bad hips from the shepard I suppose.

However, she was the most beautiful, gentle little girl that ever lived. She was older when we had our first grandchildren, bujt you would have thought they were her pups. She watched over them and took care of them like a mother.

It’s been over a week now and my wife and I still look for her, whenever we walk in the house. It’s lonely without her around. She was our best friend and we sure miss her.

Dan from MI

Roxy came into our lives in Mexico City. A couple of guys were selling puppies near our house one Saturday morning. One glimpse was enough to fall in love with her. She was in a large box with five of her brothers who were fast asleep and totally oblivious of their sister falling on them and biting playfully their muzzles and ears. What a delight she was.
She grew up to be a very handsome German shepherd, extremely intelligent, loyal and loving.
When she was three years old, our Vet in Mexico told us, , that she was not going to be much help as a guard dog; in his opinion, our pampering had killed her instincts and turned her into a toy. But no, he was wrong. Roxy was always alert and made sure that all strangers approaching the house knew that she was indeed in charge of security.
Very early on we learned that she had dysplasia and that one day, her hips would give up on her. But, for fourteen and a half years, she brought sunshine into our lives.
Roxy lives in our hearts and memories. A myriad stories and anecdotes keep her spirit here with us.

Vinicio from FL

Hello Mark,

My name is Pat McLachlan. I have just finished reading “Rescuing Sprite”. And, although I cried so hard I couldn’t read the words, my heart knew exactly what your story was saying. I recently lost my beloved black lab Jackson. He was and still is and will be forever, my soul mate.

My husband and I and our two boys, now grown men, have always had dogs, cats, hamsters, and birds and assorted other creatures in our home. Blackie, our Sheltie X lived to be 19 years old. In his old age he got cataracts and arthritis. The vet prescribed Rimadyl. We went on a weekend camping trip and upon return the vet asked us how Blackie was feeling. “Well”, I said, “I gave him the Rimadyl which worked wonders…so good in fact I had this old dog partially blind and totally deaf running through the brush like he was a pup! Only thing was, he did couldn’t see where he was going and couldn’t hear us calling him back! But he had a great time.” Eventually we had to make the decision to put him down. Devastated, we said no more dogs. The loss is just too great to bear. Three years later, a beautiful black lab from our local SPCA entered our lives. Jackson, 1 ½ years old came to live with us. (more…)

Dear Mark,
We had to put our sweet Bentley, a pure white Maine Coon cat, to sleep last night.  He was approx. 13 yo, we\’ve been blessed with having him in our family for 12 years.  He was extremely ill when we adopted him.  He nearly didn\’t make it back then.  But we loved him and he recovered.  We then had 3 children, who he either ran away from, protected or endured their laudings of love and attention.  He barely ever scratched them (only after he gave tons of warnings).

Yesterday afternoon, he suddenly developed trouble breathing, cried and gave me a panicked look.  I rushed him to a vet here in Fairfax (his normal one is in Leesburg and we didn\’t have time to get him out there in rush hour).  He was in distress and diagnosed with a thrombosis in his front leg and lungs (he had a heart condition that caused it).  The doctor said we could treat it, but that it would happen again, was painful for him and would take many weeks if not months to recover.  She couldn\’t guarantee it would do much good.  His vet in Leesburg concurred and said he wouldn\’t really have any quality of life and it would happen again.

I made the difficult decision to have him put to sleep.  It was so agonizing.  He was so precious to us!  He would come into the room, lay at our feet and just purr from being near us!!

We all (3 young kids included – 9, 7 & 6) went back and said goodbye to our precious Bentley- crying the whole time.  He purred for us again.  My husband took the children out and I stayed with him since I didn\’t want his last minutes to be with total strangers.  His precious demeanor was present to the end.  He purred until his heart stopped.

Bentley was so fun to have around, very playful in his younger years, comforting during the hard times (loss of a parent for each – my husband and I and during our oldest child\’s successful cancer treatment 2.5 years ago) patient with a little girl (my 7 yo) who \”loves him too much!\” and just a loving presence in our home.

He is incredibly missed by all of us!  I don\’t have many electronic pics, the one I found shows his patience with my daughter who decorated with leaves and cotton balls, but it\’s not cooperating w/ the download here.  He was white as the driven snow, cute pink nose, toes and ears with long whiskers, green eyes, softer than feathers, long but not super fluffy fur and big – 18 lbs.  Precious temperment and so wonderful.  We love Bentley so much and now have a strange emptiness in our home and our hearts without him!

Thanks for allowing us a place to share his memory!

Dan & Kim, Andrew, Elisa and Juliana from VA

i was walking our two dogs…a cockapoo and shietzu  on the sunday night of this year\’s golden globe awards. from nowhere another dog came over to greet us.  normally the shietzu would raise holy hell but this time all three dogs just sniffed each other. the stray had no collar on. she started following us home but then turned around and ran up the street. so i went home ,got into bed and watched as mickey rourke came on stage to accept his award. mickey then told his story about his dog.  well i just had to get up and go find that stray.  with leash in hand i walked up the street and there he was.  i put the leash on him and took him home. he stayed in our garage and dog run for the night.  early the next morning, i took him up the street and wandered around the area where i first found him.  i noticed and open gate and started towards it. then from the far end of that house a little black cat poked his head around the corner…then came running up to us. the cat went nose to nose with the dog and started rubbing against him. the dog\’s tail was going like a windmill. alas, home sweet home.  i put the dog and cat in the yard and latched the gate. this was at 6am.
on my way home that evening i saw the dog sitting on the front lawn with the owner near by. so i stopped and told him the previous night\’s tale.  he told me he and his wife were trying to figure out how the dog was in the back yard when they got up that morning.  now they know.  thank you, mickey rourke !

Richard from CA