Mark, just finished your book about Sprite, loved it and felt your loss as i ‘am now on my 3rd rescued dog. I lost my Duke in 1995 and then got Jake and lost him in 2006 and now we have “Bo”, Bo is a 2yr old yellow lab. He was tied up all the time and never allowed in the house, no vet. care and was going to be put down. i found him at the shelter here and we brought him home. He came in the house-babtised my flowers and was afraid of everything from the dishwasher to the doorbell.

He has been with is now for a year and is so loved and gives us so much love everyday. We have a downs snydrome son who lives with us and Bo just seems to know that when todd walks him he has to be gentle . He follows me all around everywhere i go and loves to sit up close and be petted. We took him to obedience school and he took 2nd place.He just seems to know how much we love him and what a good home he has to live in. He travels with us and loves to go in the van for rides.

I’m positive we were supposed to adopt Bo as in all my serches on the internet i kept comming back to our local shelter and there he was so went to see him and the rest is history. God Love the Dogs.

Jan from MI

Mark, I have listened with great admiration to your stories about Sprite and your love for him. They say you can tell the measure of a man by how he keeps score in golf (Bill Clinton cheats! – enough said) and how he treats his dog. I don’t know if you play golf but you sure love your dogs. In August our newest dog, Bennett (yes named for the Secretary) showed up at our door. We posted flyers and eventually found the owners who obviously did not want him back. So, we are now the proud parents of an 11-year old Golden Retriever. What a sweetheart. Merry Christmas, Mark, and thank you for the gift of Rescuing Sprite.

Jim from OR

I just sat down this morning and read your book cover to cover within a few hours time. With a box of tissue at hand, I have to say I am very happy that you took the time and sentimental efforts to write down all of your personal thoughts and feelings to share with complete strangers. I have to admit, I am not much of a talk radio listener, and did not know much about you prior to this book…but now, I actually feel as if I do.

A little history of how I got your book…In July this past summer, I was packing up for our yearly road trip to visit family up north, as we have done every year for the past 6 years. We would either go during Christmas, or in the summer.

Eve was my co-pilot. In fact, she loved to travel with me so much, that she had worn down the leather on the door with her paws in my leased car! (whoops!) Eve and I became best friends in November of 2000. She was a lost puppy and a friend of mine found her weeping after she must have fallen into an irrigation ditch. It was a rainy October night when he found Eve, she was scared, wet, cold and lost. My friend tried to find her mom and dad. The nearest signs of any type of community was a trailer park down the road from this irrigation ditch. He went door to door looking for the owners of this little pup. One woman told him that the dog was once hers and that she gave it to the guy down the road, but he was put in jail. End of story. He began a search for a GOOD home for this little girl, because he could not keep her. He asked me to put up a sign at my work, I looked at the sign and on it was a printed photo of a little wet big eyed doggie and I said…OH MY GOSH….I need to meet her! The sign never went up. And I “adopted” EVE (who was named after being found on the eve of Halloween). (more…)

Mark, I listen to you every night and I enjoy your show. We adopted a dog from the pound in Florida 10 years ago. He is the love of our life. I know we don’t have many more years with him so we enjoy what we have now. Walks and taking him with us everywhere we go.

Keep well and will be listening to every night.

Darlene from TN

My story is of a cat, I called ‘BOX’. She always liked to get into boxes, when she was younger. I got her in front of a K-mart store in 1974, in Tallahassee, Florida.

She was a calico color and was a family member to the end. When my father would eat boiled peanuts on the bed, there was the cat joining him eating them. She would sleep underneath his underarm, curdled up, with a very much secured feeling on her face. She would sit on my mothers lap (mom has a big stomach, due to me being born; 10 pounds, 10 ounces) and stretch her paws around mom’s waist. In the summer of 1981, when noticed she was getting very thin, around her back legs. My parents took the cat to the vet and they came home in tears. They told me that the diagnosis was bad the cat had leukemia! We were given special medicine, to be fed by her with an eye dropper. I spoiled that cat with ice cream (with medicine) for the last week of her life).

Then something strange happened on her last day, before we took her to the vet to be put to sleep. On the night before, she slept at the foot of my parent’s bed, instead of by my father. She eventually made her way to my room and slept at the foot of my bed. When I went to go get her, and put her in the cardboard box and take her to the vet, she went crawling, in pain to try to get into the box, on her own. It was if she ‘knew’ that it would soon be over! My parents took her, to the vet and brought her back and I buried her in that cardboard box. I wrote a note, stating that losing her, was like the death of a sister and stuck it underneath her paws.

Mark, your right, we are the lucky ones indeed; to have our pets, to help us navigate through hard times and to provide comfort, when it seems most needed!

Vern from FL

Hello Mr. Levin,

I ‘m writing you as an animal lover as well. I recently lost my Beagle Tuffy to cancer. My daughter who work with a rescue where I found Tuffy Had him creamated for me from a pet mortuary. I know the pain you felt with the loss of Sprite and in time it will heal. Remeber this though if not for people as ourselves what chances or hope would these little friends have? This is the thought I have and it helps. I know Tuffy is in a better place though I miss him greatly. At least he dont have to hear the wacko libs. Thank You Sir for reading my letter
Cordially,

John from FL