Lucky came into my life 10 1/2 years ago. My son, David, picked him out of a litter of puppies. He came at a time when my son was having a very hard time and Lucky was a real comfort to him. David says he saved his life. For 4 years Lucky and David were inseparable. Then my son grew up and moved away, but couldn’t take Lucky. For a couple months Lucky would lay on the floor of David’s room and grieve. Then he decided to become my dog, and as I had become an empty nest single mom (both of my children had moved out of town), he became a great comfort to me.

For the past 6 years, he has been totally attached to me except when my son comes to town, then he is totally David’s dog. He has brought me such joy. He anticipates my every move, follows me everywhere, protects me from noises in the night. When I come home from work, he is at the door wagging his tail and jumping in excitement to see me. I can’t imagine life without him. But, soon I will have to experience that. He became sick about 2 weeks ago, and I took him to the vet. He told me that Lucky either had an extremely bad infection that had invaded all of his lymph nodes, or he had lymph sarcoma. He put him on medication for 2 weeks and I took him back today for a check-up. As kindly as he could, the vet told me that Lucky does have the sarcoma. He was pretty sure last time, but tried the antibiotics just in case he was mistaken. We discussed all the options, and I decided to follow what he would do if Lucky was his dog. Take him home and keep him comfortable. He probably only has 4-5 months to live, and any options I would try might extend his life a couple months, but the quality of those months would not be good. I was heartbroken and drove home with tears in my eyes. Lucky hates riding the car and cries the whole time we are riding. But what he hates even more is seeing me sad. So characteristic of my sweet dog was his reaction to my sadness. He didn’t cry at all about the ride. Instead he kept laying his head on my hand licking it to comfort me. I am going to try to spend the next few months treasuring every moment with him, but it’s going to be a hard few months. I knew you would understand.

Mary Alice from PA

I just wanted to tell you about our dog, Smokey. She is now deceased but we often remember her with love and appreciation. She died of old age in 1990.
We usually took her camping with us. This one time when we woke up she was proudly standing over a dead possum that was killed by her trying to get into our food.
Another time she saved our youngest son from being hurt or killed by an attack dog that had jumped his backyard fence. Our son, David, was playing in the dirt driveway. All of the sudden this dog was running right towards him. I was watching this from my front window and could not get outside in time. Out of nowhere Smokey came and ran that dog off. I was so grateful I gave her a nice venison steak. She was a Collie-German Shepard mix. The dog that jumped the fence was pure German Shepard. I am so thankful that she was in our life and I still miss her.
I just wanted you to know that I am a “Gold Star” aunt. My nephew Cpl. Nathaniel Hammond was in the great Marine Corp. He gave his life to save others on November 8, 2005 in Iraq. He received several medals and citations. I am proud to have known him. His father followed him in death due to the sorrow he could not bear. Tom, was my baby brother. He has the most wonderful 7 children I know (except for mine of course!)
I really enjoy your program and your courage to say what is true without worrying about what others think of you. Keep up the good work.
Your friend,
Becky from MO

Mark:

I thought this would be the best place to post this. Sgt. Josh and his Sprite should be made of aware of SPCA International’s effort to bring home some of these soldiers’ dogs that they’ve adopted. Perhaps Sgt. Josh could ask for help from these people:

http://www.baghdadpups.com/

Good luck to him!

 Sandra from CA

Someone on a message board that I frequent recently posed a question about what separates us from the “lesser” animals, apart from religion. I responded by listing the lessons I’ve learned from Blackjack, which are as follows:

–If you audibly fart, act surprised and walk away.
–Burp if you really need to.
–Licking your wounds makes them better. Unless you lick too much, then your fur comes off.
–Eat anything that tastes good, whether it’s food or not. Then ask for more if you want more. If it’s not food, it’ll come out one way or another.
–Sleep in sunny patches.
–Cuddle enthusiastically.
–Be beside yourself with joy when you see someone you love.
–Ask for physical affection and you shall receive.
–Drink lots of water.
–Spend time outside on sunny days running around acting crazy.
–Go for walks.
–Enjoy the smells.
–Sleep in your loved one’s room if there’s a big storm that scares you.

I think I’d like to come back as a dog in my next lifetime. Because humans aren’t necessarily the “higher” life form.

Sherlyn from TX

Hi, Mark,
I wanted to let you know that i loved your book, it took me a while to read because i had to keep putting it down, because i was crying.
It reminded me of my luci, she was a shelter dog, part brittany, and border collie, she was also an older dog. she was red and white with the best personality ever, she would talk to us all the time if we didn’t pay attention to her. One day i was home alone with her and all of sudden she fell over and stiffen right up. We found out that day she had epilepsy. So we called the shelter to see if we could find out anything in her past that would help up figure out what we could do. The shelter told us that we could bring her back and we said No way. Just because she was sick didn’t mean we didn’t want her. To me it was like if my child was sick i wasn’t going to give them up.
So we ended up putting her on medication, she was with us for 5 years after that, one night she would stop having these sezuires, and she had a high fever, so we took her to the doctor at about 2.oo in the morning and didn’t expect her to live through the night, but she did. i went to pick her up the next day and she was perky and everything, and then i took her to my vet and he told me that we didn’t know how much damage was done to her brain and that is was time to think about putting her down because it wasn’t fair to her, she used to go blind, and such, it was so hard on her. So my husband and i talked and made that horrible decision. My husband could not go with me to the vet, So i went by myself and stayed with her the whole time. It was the worst thing i had ever experienced in my life. I cryed so hard on the way home i had to pull over. (more…)

My wife has always been a dog lover. I liked dogs but never had really become attached to one. Last October my wife brought home two border collie lab mix puppies. They were frightened and tiny and seemed too small to be away from their mother. My 4-year old daughter named one Shylo and I named the other Tesla.

Although they are sisters they have very different personalities. Shylo is very calm, somewhat aloof and timid and only interacts with the family if Tesla is with her. She mostly ignores us when we call her.

Tesla became everything we were looking for in a dog. She always wants to please us, is gentle with the kids, is very loving, comes when called, is a good watch dog, and has a ferocious bark that would surely scare anyone who didn’t know what a sweetheart she is.

Although Shylo is a little cool toward the family she is a constant companion to Tesla and they run and play all day until they can’t run any more.

Yesterday Tesla was struck by a garbage truck. My wife scrambled to get her to the vet. She couldn’t get Shylo to leave her side. So she had to pick up Shylo and carry her to the house. By the time I got to the vet my wife was in tears and Tesla was gone. (more…)