Thank you for your book.

I started it Thur night but knew I would not put it down unitil it was done. So saved until today so I could read it in it’s entirety.

I started reading at 6:30 am and read it non – stop. I will tomorrow give it to a co-worker who if he doesn’t have to re-read the last 20 pages or so because of tears, he isn’ t human.

Thank you Mark. It was a wonderful book.

I have 3 stories that equate to yours and believe me I know what you went through or are still going through.

I still look out my kitchen window every day and see the gladiola plant that thrives where I buried Freeway’s ashes 8 years ago.(Much like you look out and see the tree where Sprite ‘s are buried.)
Today I have two t new children. Baxter who is a 25 lb cat and Little Kitty (8lbs) both from the Animal Shelter.

I again thank you for your book.
I live in an area where your progam has been moved to midnight. I used to listen to you from 3:00- to 5:00. What happened? I called the local station and they told me they had moved you to midnight.. I regestered a complaint.
PLease come back to my listening area at a reasonable time.

Barbara from ID

Mark, listen all the time,but first time to write.
Yesterday morning we had to put our cat BUBBA down he was about 17yrs.

We rescued him from a bad place 10yrs.ago. He was the sweetest cat and the most lovable buddy i could ask for.
He liked to take his paws and pat my face so softly and when you held him he would flex his paws like needing biskit dough.
Well he came down with a cancer tumor on his upper lip and it just started to take him away a little each day till we had to stop his suffering.

But mark now mine haS STARTED 48 hrs. later i’m still in tears and my heart is broke into.
please tell me this will get better.

My wife just finished your book i bought her and she love it and said it help her to prepare, I wish I would have read it in time too. 60yrs old and this pain like i never felt before and hope never to again.
I know I will but I hope GOD gives me more back bone first.

Thanks for being there,

Earl from TX

I married a dog person. I am a cat person. It took great amount of love and respect to allow three girls to upheave my husbands life (me and my two calico cats). He was outvoted and outbathroomed… He fell in love with my girls.

One day, when i was at the dentist, he visited the pet store next door. He excitedly and with lots of feeling (so unlike my husband) said that he found a kitten that was unlike all other cats. We visited the pet store and needless to say, we came home with a boy kitten in a cardboard box.That was the beginning of a cat/man relationship. The girl cats, Banshee and Kirby were “mine” and the boy cat, Grommet, was “his”.

We put down a deposit for a house to be built, and were boxing up our numerous books when Banshee took a turn for the worse. I was surprised, she was the younger of the girls. She had an intestinal issue and we had to put her to sleep. My husband went back down to the vet’s to get her little body and he buried her in our woods that we were building near. Within a year, Kirby died at our new house and buried near Banshee. Grommet was lost and wandering around the house. He could see the hurt and pain I was feeling for my two girls. He spent more and more time with me and now he is like my shadow.

We got two brothers, Wallace and Sprocket, both kittens from where we got Grommet to help him, life was good. Sprocket with his antics and goofyness, and Wallace being stand-offish, yet loving when he thought no one else was around except me. But we were missing something… (more…)

Rescuing Sprite is a wonderful book. I had a hard time getting through the part when you had to put him down. I cried and put the book down for it broke my heart. I lost my sweet German Shorthir Pointer named Montana in June of 2006. He was so specail and was one of a kind. We have a swimming pool and when the kids were swimming he would run aroound the pool and throw his tennis ball in and wait for the kids to throw it back to him. He would stay out there the entire time they were there. He had cancer and toward the end when he was weak and tired he still would run around the pool.

At the end it was so hard to watch him make his rounds around the pool because he was so weak but he would not stop. I had to make him come in so he could rest. At the time I had two other Shorthairs and while they chased squirrels all day, Montana stayed inside and followed me around the house instead of hunting like the other two. I still cry when I think about him. I feel so guilty because when we took him to the Vet to put him down I could not go in the room. I couldn’t bare the pain of watching him die. I sometimes wonder if people who are not dog lovers can begin the understand how much it hurts us when we lose our pets. I only wish God would let them stay with us for more than a few short years. I do believe dogs go the heaven and will be waiting for us.

Jan from OK

I just finished reading Rescuing Sprite and cried most of the way through it because I have lived with the pain of pet loss three times and currently have two Labs.

My first Lab was a gift while I was in the Navy. He lived with me 14 years until he died from Bone and Cartilage Cancer. God did’t let him die in his sleep, I had to put him to sleep when he could no longer eat and was in so much pain that even petting him hurt him. I got him the best of care, even going to the Univ. of PA Vet School but there was nothing to be done for him.

My heart still breaks and I still cry over his loss when I think of him. He died in 1992. My second was a rescue who had been left on the streets to starve to death as a puppy. She came when Smokey (the first one) was 9-1/2 years old. I got her from the Humane Society when she was 6 months old – emaciated and so ill that my Vet was sure she would die within the week – she lived with me and cuddled in bed with me for 11-1/2 more years.

Her name was Honey Girl because she was so sweet. She went so quickly with a rapidly progressing paralysis over 3 days. She was in the office with me daily and my patients felt her loss almost as much as I did. My third was also a resuce but had been so abused that he had a very mean streak and had to be put down when he bit me as I was caring for him. My current ones are also rescues and the younger one, now 6 years old, is also in my office with me daily. I am a Family Physician and see all ages of patients. Sometimes I think the patients come to have time with Abby almost as much as to see me. Abby was left in an apartment without food and water for a week when she was 8 weeks old. I am the third owner for the older dog who stays at home. He also had a rough start in life and the second owners trained him but decided he was too much to care for after having him for 3 years. He is a Yellow Lab named Midas. The others were or are Black Labs. My husband, like you, didn’t want dogs but I had two when he married me and he now realizes that we will always have at least one.
Remember: There are only two sources of unconditional love in this world – God and a Dog and Dog is God spelled backwards.

Sorry, I have no photos but I have not learned how to put my pictures on a computer yet.

Elizabeth from PA

I have read your book and it was great. I have not lost my dog, but your book made me appreciate and love my dog even more – something I did not think was possible.

After reading your book – something dawned on me and I wanted to share those thoughts with you.

Soemtimes we are caught in the net of destiny – totally unaware of it at the time. I believe that was what happened to you.

You and your family adopted a dog named Sprite – gave him a really good home – loved him with great intensity – saved him from untold dreadful experiences.

It was a tragedy that you lost Sprite, but perhaps it happened for reasons that could not be foreseen. It was your deeply devoted love for Sprite that caused you to share you experiences through a book. This book has touched many thousands of people deep within their souls – giving them a way to grieve for their own loss – something they may not have been able to do without your book.

It is truly unfortunate that Sprite had to leave, but the legacy he has left behind is truly amazing. His name will be remembered by all the people you have touched through your book – a book that would not exist if you – in your position and popular public figure had not been there to write it. Every time I look at my dog – I think of Sprite and what a great dog he was – how truly blessed you were to have spent time with him – how blessed I am to have a dog of my own to love and cherish.

I believe that Sprite fulfilled his destiny and did so with your help. He has helped so many with their grief. What greater destiny could any one of us even hope for.

God bless you and your family.

peace – love – happiness

Phil from TX