Mr. Levin:

I just finished reading “Rescuing Sprite”. It was a wonderful book. I have always been a dog lover and I can identify with your emotions about Sprite and all of your dogs.

I had to put my beloved dog, Scrubber, to sleep about 2 weeks before Christmas year before last. He is buried in the garden in my back yard. I want him always to be close. He was 16 1/2 years old. He gave me and my family so much joy. It was so very hard when his vet told us it was time to put him to sleep. I cried so hard in the arms of our vet’s wife. I knew it was time, but it was still very difficult. Now I am comforted that he is running happily in the fields of doggy heaven with all of my other dogs.

I have adopted 2 dogs from a local shelter. Lancelot is part Lab and part Austrialian Shepherd. Adam is a rat terrier mix. I call them “my boys”. I love them so much. Dogs add so much pleasure to our lives. They are God’s angels on earth. They teach us so much about unconditional love.

God bless you for writing this book. So many people can identify with it.

Jennifer from KY

Mark I enjoy your show very much. You and Rush, and sometime Sean get my blood pumping. I do have to say that you and Rush are my favorites to listen to.
I just wanted to let you know my episode with having to put my dog, Andy down this week. I read your book, and there is a story there also. My wife knew I wanted your book, so the first day it was available she went to work and ordered it for me from Amazon. She emailed me to tell me, I replied that is great, we will now have 2 copies because I already did the same thing.

Well it came and I read it in an afternoon. I found it very hard, since I had a 17 year old dog who was always at my side, and I knew it was inevitable that our day was coming. He has been relatively healthy considering his age and having Kidney problems for the last 2 or 3 years. But Wednesday morning everything seemed normal, my wife and I went to work as usual. I left work at 5 and was going to stop to buy my wife a valentines day card, when I got a call. It was my wife and she asked where I was and could I get home as soon as possible. I did to find my dog, Andy laying in the kitchen in his own urine and wimpering. I took him to the family room to see if I could get him to stand, but he could not. We called our Vet and told them we needed to come in immediately. We did and they told us we could run tests and get Xrays, but we knew the long and short of it. He had reached the end, his body had given out. The doctor told us we did the right thing. But I harken back to the book and think about yourspiel about playing God, having to make a decision like that, and I just don’t know.

I have had bouts with extreme sadness of never seeing my good friend again, but I am trying to just keep going.
Just wanted to let you know I love what you stand for, and the way Sprite affected you, and I am waiting for these terrible feelings of missing my friend to go away.
Good luck with you coming to terms with Sprites demise and I will see what happens to me.

Tony from NJ

I so miss my KoKo…my little shadow.

Susan from TX

I just finished rescuing spite last night, I picked the book up and did not put it down until it was finished. My eyes are swollen this morning from crying. It has taken me three months to get this book; I knew it was going to effect me this way. I had to put the love of my life “Murphy” down October 20th, 2007. She was also a stray dog, she just showed up in my apartment complex. I was a single woman, living a single life, I wasn’t sure if I could handle such responsibility. At first I went thru my town asking police, UPS, and storeowners had known the owner of this beautiful well-behaved dog. Nobody seemed to know where she came from? I don’t live in a rural neighborhood, I have no idea how Murphy had managed to get in the middle of my apartment complex. Within 24 hours I knew I had to make the sacrifice, what I didn’t know was that it was not a sacrifice it was first day of many blessed days. I have to thank my mother, without her help with walking Murphy during the day when I had to go to work I would never have been able to have the best 9 years of my life.

She went everywhere with me, she loved the car, she went jet skiing with me, I got her a life vest because she always was on my heels and when I went in the water she would follow me. She was a yellow lab and she could swim but I was always so careful with her, she would follow me off the cliff. We shared so many joyous days; she had such a wonderful loving personality. My favorite thing about her was the way she looked at me; we had a way of communicating just thru our eyes. I did not have to walk her on a leach because she would always be by my side, she would bark her fool head off if I had someone else hold her leash if I had to walk away.
As I mentioned she was a stray dog so I too did not know how old she was, when I got her they said she was 5-6 years old. I had her for 9 glorious years, her hearing had gone, she had arthritis, and she seemed to tolerate that OK with medication. I want to say the God was good to us, I had become unemployed early in the summer of 2007, I knew that the end was near, I spend every day with her, I took her away on weekends up to New Hampshire where she could be free to roam (although she wouldn’t she would not leave my side)
The last 2 days of her life were just terrible, she started having difficulty breathing, I was at the vet several times, they had to use a nebulae, to see if that would help, they were going to put her on steroids to see if that would help. She was too old to try to perform any surgery on her. I just knew that she was struggling, but her heart and her eyes still looked at me so lovingly. (more…)

Reading about Sprite was so enjoyable yet so painful. In 1998, we lost our beautiful Bishon, ShaSha, after a 6 month battle with kidney disease. She was 11 yrs old and I was devastated. Sha was an unusual Bishon, long legged and very fast. She could catch squirrels and was always active and in great shape until she had problems with her kidneys. When she was diagnosed in May of 1998, the vet told us she could survive anywhere from a few months to 3 yrs.

When her kidneys failed in November of that year, she went downhill very quickly. We took her to the vet on a Sunday and much to our dismay, her regular doctor was on vacation. The vet on call told us to leave her there for a few days and he would see what he could do. He called us on Tuesday and told us he could do nothing for her and we should pick her up and because she was in no pain, allow us to spend time with us until she got worse. We picked her up hoping for a miracle and at least having the chance for the entire family to saygood bye to her. She was truly loved by everyone and that night beside my children and parents, my sisters and nephews came over to say farewell.

When everyone left, Sha took a terrible turn for the worse. We knew we couldn’t get to the vet at that time and tried to make her as comfortable as possible. She was in terrible pain that night and my wife and I couldn’t wait to get her to the vet to end her misery. The next morning–the day before Thanksgiving—we left the house as early as possible to take her. It was unbearable to hold her and have the vet inject her to put her to sleep. She died minutes later in our arms and we just stood there crying cuddling her for as long as we could.
ShaSha was creamated on the same date as the one on which Sprite died—Dec.8th.
Like Mark, it was so traumatic to lose our beautiful baby that the thought of getting another dog a few months later was out of the question for me. I go never see myself going through that pain again.So in February when my daughter Cara told me she wanted to go to Virginia to purchase a soft-coated Wheaton Terrier with her boy friend–I was strongly opposed. To make a longstory short. she went ahead and got Roxy–our wonderful Wheaton who we’ve had now for 9 years. Roxy is a great dog, very intelligent and sometimes very stubborn. We love her dearly and of course are very attached to her. Cara is getting married in May and now instead of alternating between her, her brother Chris (my son) and my wife and I, as to who she’ll sleep with at night, her choices are down to 2 bedrooms.

Life goes on and even though we punish ourselves in many ways by having these beautiful dogs, its hard to imagining living without them. They so much joy to our lives. I even think my parents look forward more to seeing Roxy when they come over our house than seeing us. Roxy lights up eveybody’s life and is so loving to all she comes in contact with–friends, neighbors, little kids, other animals and even complete strangers. Everyone loves Roxy and she loves them back.
Can you imagine what a doggie heaven would be like?

Ray from NJ

I hope my master walks me today
And then throws the ball for us to play
I hope he buys me a brand new toy
Pats my head and calls me a good boy
I hope he fills my water bowl soon
So I can go and bay at the moon
I hope he gives me my precious snack
The one that comes in that reddish pack
Hope he sees my tail wagging to walk
It’s hard sometimes since I cannot talk
Hope he knows me standing at the door
I’m not posing for him to adore
I can get him to rub my belly
And then start it shaking like jelly
I like it when we play tug-of-war
When I go sliding across the floor
Think I will keep this master of mine
His actions are ones that truly shine
I’ll love and protect him everyday
I am mans best friend or so they say
I have gotten him perfectly trained
Our relationship was never strained
I love every thing he’s done for me
My devotion is what he will see

LARRY from OR