I JUST GOT DONE READING RESCUING SPRITE.FIRST OF ALL I AM SORRY FOR YOUR LOSS! YOU AND YOUR FAMILY ARE VERY SPECIAL PEOPLE.ANOTHER GOOD BOOK YOU SHOULD READ IS MERLE’S DOOR. I TO HAVE HAD TO PUT 2 DOGS DOWN. THAT WAS 2 YEARS AGO. I STILL TO THIS VERY DAY GET TEARS IN MY EYES WHEN I THINK OF THEM. MAY YOU FIND PEACE IN YOUR HEART SOMEDAY. THANKS FOR WRITING THE BOOK.

Ric from WI

2004-2005 brought changes of unimmaginable proportions to our family and our 15 year old Westie named Topper sustained us through the darkest of days.

The day after Thanksgiving in 2004 the call to our home came that a parent never wants to hear. Our beloved son Glenn had been killed in an automoblie accident. Needless to say our family was devastated and simply tried to put one foot in front of the other each day, and simply try to cope with a tremendous hole in our lives. (more…)

How can I describe the events of that fateful day without breaking down in tears again? My heart broke that day, and I have not been able to get over my grief at losing her so suddenly.
It began as any other day. We awoke together, I let her out to do her business and gave her a bowl of kibble for breakfast. She lay on the living room rug in the sunshine and rolled over on her back to enjoy rubbing her spine on the carpet and making her guttural “happy sounds”. We puttered around the house and Tom and I got dressed to go next door to our neighbor’s 50th birthday party. Since it was going to be a garden party, and our yards are right next door to each other, we decided to crate Ginger during the party time so she wouldn’t stand at the fence and be tempted to bark at us.

We got home from the party around 9:30 that night, and I went to let Ginger out of her crate to come upstairs. She immediately ran to check her food bowl (in case food had mysteriously appeared in it, as she always did). I was on my way to the bathroom when I heard a thumping sound–and then nothing. Instantly, I changed direction and ran to where Ginger was lying on the dining room floor.
She was hardly moving, but her eyes were open and she was having trouble breathing. I knelt down and began rescue breathing while yelling for Tom to come help me. I closed my hands over her mouth and breathed mouth-to-snout for Ginger as Tom knelt to feel for a pulse. He told me her heart was beating a mile a minute, but even as he said so, her heart stopped, and we began CPR. It was quickly evident that our Ginger was slipping away from us despite our best efforts to resuscitate her. I told Tom to go get our neighbor, Larry (the birthday neighbor) who had dogs of his own and might know what else we could do to try and save her. As I cradled her in my arms, I crooned to her that, “Mommy’s here. It’s going to be all right, Ginger. Don’t worry, Mommy’s here, baby.” I rocked her back and forth and held her close to my chest. She looked up at me with her big, brown eyes that were pleading with me as if to say, “What’s happening Mom? Help me, help me, please!” (more…)

I have two dogs, but I only want to talk about one. Her name is Grace and she is a Boston Terrier. We bought her from a man that lived in a hut in the middle of nowhere. He had many dogs that were on the verge of death. When we bought her we brought our friend, who worked with the government, and she said “if you don’t get this dog she will die.” So we bought her and when we brought her home for the next two weeks she was in my lap throwing up and getting very sick. But she finally got through it and when she felt better she wouldn’t stop licking us. So we named her Grace for how she lived. To this day she only stops licking when she sleeps.

Jack from CA

When our children were 4, 7 and 10, we saw a sign for “Free Puppies”. We stopped and found a dozen puppies.Mom was a golden retreiver and it appeared that some of the puppies had a doderman dad, while others may have been fathered by a mastiff who lived down the road. One of those mastiff looking puppies waddled over to my husband and fell asleep on his shoe. We fell in love with this mild mannered puppy and took him home.From the size of his feet, we knew that he would grow into a heavyweight, so my husband named him Bugner, after the heavy weight boxer, Joe Bugner.Within a year this gentle giant was 125 pounds of pure muscle! He was “The King of the Basin” where we lived in Colorado. He guarded over our children and property by just looking intimidating.

He slept on our son, Mason’s bed every night.Mason was just 4 when we got Bugner. He was probably Mason’s closest friend. He went hiking and camping with Mason and our older son, Kelly.When they went horseback riding, Bugner ran as fast and as far as the horses to stay close to his boys.He had more heart than any dog I’ve ever known. He pulled the kids up and down snow covered hills on their sleds, and loved playing ball and frizbee with the kids.
One day, when our daughter was a teenager she was alone at home.She heard Bugner growling and barking and was about to tell him to “shut up” when she looked out the window and saw a strange man hiding in the trees in front of our house. Bugner was keeping him at bay by running back and forth in front of our house. One month later a young girl went missing a few miles from our house. She was later found dead. I’m not sure that it was the same stranger, but I’m confident that Bugner protected Jamie from harm.

When Mason left for college, Bugner was nearly 14- really old for a big dog! He hah had several surgeries for removal of mast cell tumors, but they kept coming back.I’m sure they matastisized because he kept getting weaker and weaker. We could tell that he longed to go on walks, but he didn’t have the strength.When he became so weak that he couldn’t stand up, we discussed having him put to sleep.
We called Mason at college and told him about his beloved friend.He asked us not to have him put to sleep until he could get home and tell him goodbye.

As soon as I hung up the phone, I went back into the familyroom were Jim and Bugner were sitting.Bugner used every bit of strength that he had to crawl over to my husband and lay his head on his lap. Jim pet his massive head as he had done for almost 14 years, and Bugner took his last breath.

Although we’ve had many dogs that we’ve loved, Bugner is the one that we are sure we’ll see at the gates of Heaven greeting and guarding!

Mason is now a CPT. in the U.S. Army- serving our country in Afganistan. I ordered him a signed copy of “Rescuing Sprite”- I’m sure he’ll be touched. Thank- you for all you do in supporting the troops!

MAJ. Susan Wilson, U.S. Army
Missouri

Dear Mark, I just completed your lovely book about Sprite. Thank you for sharing your heartfelt story with so many of us dog lovers. I have lost some of my beloved “fur-kids” also. I found your story so full of compassion, thought, insight and love that I just wanted to respond to you here.

It has been 5 years since my last Beloved pet , Amber died. We too had to end her life and chose to have our vet come to our home. It was the second time I had to make that “grown up god-like decision to end a beloved life. You explained the anguish and thought that goes into such a decison very eloquently.

Now, I have two new fur-kids; Aloha; (love in Hawaiina) and Mahalo; (gratitude in Hawaiian). I named that because I feel such love and gratitude to have the opportunity to be their guardians in their lives. There is much more I would like to share as I have now made dogs my “heart work”.

I will save that for another time. Thanks again Mark, for giving this book to the world. Aloha and Mahalo,

Loren from AZ