She came to us two days before Easter, 1995 and left us two days after Christmas, 2007…today. She was the family dog and the finest one we had ever known. She came at a happy time, but a time that this family needed her. Our oldest son was in college, we had one in high school and one in middle school. For some reason, the family that had her at birth let her go at 6 weeks old and she was truly a baby…a little brown teddy bear that we held up to our face and she smelled like only newborn puppies can and she made a little grunting noise. She was the regal dog, the only pedigree we had ever gotten. Two years before we had to put our little mut, Muffin, to sleep from old age. she was fourteen. This time we wanted the dog’s dog…a Labrador retriever. We drove to Pennsylvania and picked up the cutest dog we had ever seen, paid $350. for her, brought her home and named her Smudge. She was a great dog who’s sole purpose in life was to retrieve a ball and get in the garbage. She was a wonderful swimmer and spent a few hours at the local mud hole retrieving balls from the pond. She also loved the snow, sticks, sleeping by the fire, and her best friend, Pokey, the crazy black lab we got two years later. At about six months we noticed that she was limping and found out that she had a condition in her lower leg joint that rendered her with arthritis at a year old. We opted to not operate on her, and for the most part, I am glad we made the decision, though she would suffer with pain in that joint and in her hip toward the end of her life. The next twelve years went very quickly and we saw two of our parents die, our two other children go off to college, and our grandchild born. Our grandson, Gabe, loved her and Pokey. Through all of the ups and downs of daily family living, Pokey and Smudge were there, except for this one, of course.

In the last year Smudge began to show signs of failing health. We had a hard time accepting it. She had a hard time getting up (and down) off of the floor. The six or so months before today, we daily picked up poop in the middle of the night, sometimes several times a day.This is the same dog who would never….I repeat…never go to the bathroom in our house. Our vet did not quite understand it, but I think that the pain in her hips and leg somehow rendered her partially paralyzed and she had lost all control. (more…)

On November 8, 2006, we put our dog, Mika, to rest. This is the tribute I wrote on her behalf 24 hours later.

My Mika

To tell this story properly, I need to go way back in my youth to my very first dog, Charlie, a collie dog that my parents got us shortly after we moved from the only neighborhood I had known to a new city. I was about 8 years old. My brother was 3. Charlie was a great dog for us. In retrospect, he had a lot of “Marley” in him! I remember the time he ate an entire outdoor wooden couch! Anyway, we loved Charlie with all our hearts. A couple of years later, my Mom and Dad had some problems and Mom took us away to live in Texas for a year. Dad stayed in Illinois. So did Charlie. It was a tough year, but in a year we were reunited as a family, except for Charlie. We were told that Dad gave Charlie to a family out in the country. I guess Dad was having a bad time of it and caring for the dog was too much. I tell this personal part of my life only to establish the special attraction dogs have had for me. As a kid growing up we never did get another dog, though my brother and I sure wanted one.

Flash forward to my 30’s. I’m married now and my daughter wants a dog. We found a very attractive 6-month old cocker spaniel and named him Jiggers. As daughters are disposed to do, Monica soon outgrew her devotion to her dog, at about the time she discovered the males of our species, if memory serves me correctly. But, that was okay as Loretta and I adored Jiggers. Jiggers was a bit unusual for a cocker as he never had even a cross moment in his life. He was ever happy. After about 14 years, something was tugging at my heart, however. (more…)

Just finished your book and my husband is still apologizing (wrongly) for getting me the book for Christmas, as I have been crying for the last hour. It’s a wonderful, heartfelt book and a beautiful tribute to your beloved Sprite and also to Pepsi and your family.

You put into words how we feel about our rescue dog, Bear. We adopted him nearly 9 years ago, shortly after losing our 14 year old schnauzer. We had also lost my mother and my husband’s father in the months before. I searched Internet rescue sites and immediately fell in love with his sweet face. The adoption nearly fell through when they discovered at his final checkup that he had heartworms. I was already in love with that beautiful dog and pleaded with them to let us foster him during his treatment. Fortunately, they agreed and he has been ours ever since. We drove across two states to pick him up sight unseen. It didn’t matter because we were already in love.

I don’t know if it’s just my precious Bear (and your Sprite) or if it has something to do with being rescued, but Bear is the best dog anyone could ever hope to share a life with. He has enriched our lives so much that I can’t imagine life without him. Hence, my squalling and crying while reading your book. I will feel exactly as you have felt–and Bear is getting old. He came to us at a time when we were both feeling such loss and we have often commented that he rescued us instead of the other way around.

Thanks so much for the book and I wish you many more wonderful years with Pepsi and Griffen.

Anita from IL

Mark:
I finished reading your book today. It blew me away because i so, am a dog lover. As i read the last page and closed the book my dog was in my arms. I love my dog so much i would give up my life for his. I just want you to know that you, your book and especially Spritey have inspired me. When a human dies you get over it. When your dog dies the memories of you two together stick with you for eternity. I never compare human deaths to dog deaths but i know in my heart which one you grieve over more. Sprite even ispired my dog when i told him about Sprite. I love Sprite.

Hannah from NY

Mark,

I had a siamese kitten named Jacob. I lost him when he was less then a year old. He was sick from
day one because of bad breeding.We tried everything to save him but couldn’t.That as three years ago.I still haven’t gotten over it and for Christmas ,my husband got me another Siamese kitten. He also gave me your book in hopes that it would help me with my grieving and allow me to love another kitty. The new kitty named,Noah,hasn’t come home yet…we pick him up on Sunday.I just got finished reading about Sprite and I am glad to know someone else can understand what I went through. I think now I will be able to see Noah as his own self and not expect him to be Jacob.
I have a girlfriend that lost her dog of twelve years to cancer on Christmas Eve.I am going to write a paragraph dedicated to Jacob in that book and let her read it,then she can wite a little about Amy,her dog.I will keep it and offer it as comfort to anyone who shares our pain as a tribute to Sprite.
Thanks for sharing your experience.

Heidi from NJ

My husband got me this book for christmas. I sat down yesterday the 26th and for the first time ever read a book in one sitting. He listens to Hannity and heard it was an awesome book. He was right, of course I cried from about page 85 on. I used an entire box of tissues and cried so hard I couldn’t catch my breath. All the while my husband and daughter sat and played with there new xbox 360. I couldn’t believe that i couldn’t sleep after that. I couldn’t wait to write you an email.

This will probably sound crazy but I also sat down this morning at 5:30 am an emailed the Oprah Show about this book. I just wanted her to know about it if she didn’t already. We lost our mini choc poodle 3 years ago after spending thousands of dollars and thinking nothing of it, to find out what was wrong with her to no avail. We put her down 10 days before xmas and 4 days after i was on the phone with a breeder who had one female choc. poodle left. I drove down that day and picked her up. Mia is now three and in our mind a clone of our beloved cocoa. I will definetely consider rescuing after reading this book. Thank You-for my puffy eyes and all! Sincerely,

Sandra from PA