My reason for writing is to say I loved your new book, “rescuing Sprite”. I haven’t cried much more than when I identified with all your feelings, love, compassion and loss. I am the comsummate dog lover and totally identify with all you voiced in the book. thank you for sharing your heart. I too greive with you in your friend’s death. He will live in my heart forever too, because of your book and your appreciation of one of God’s precious creatures. May God’s richest blessings be on you and yours.

Alice from TX

After our dog died, my wife in particular was extremely distressed. I started thinking about why we dog lovers cherish our dogs so much &, sort of off the cuff, had some thoughts I wrote down, as a short poem(By the way, I’m not a big poetry fan) It goes like this

Loaners from God
Temporary Lives
Whisked in to witness our
foibles, with indifference
And report back

In other words, God created dogs for humans, for a reason

Roger from MD

On October 1, 2005, Brandon, our only child, age 23, was killed in an auto crash by a drunk driver. It was a hard time for us. Our 2 dogs, Holle and Kobi, were now our only babies. Holle was a 13 year old minature schnauzer in good health. Last summer, she started having seizures and they could not find medication to help her condition. My wife woke me up one morning about 3 A.M. begging me not to go to work that day. We needed to take home to the vet and talk about putting her down. Her condition was rapidly deteriotating. We took her in and talked with substitute vet, but one who was very compassionate. She had gone through a similar experience. We cried as we talked the hard decision that we had to make. Holle had always been such a sweet dog and we loved her very much. We finally decided that this is what we needed to do.
Additionally, what made this decision so hard is that Holle was Brandon’s dog. It felt like we were losing him again.Kobi is a Bensiji and now has been the center of our attention.

Curtis from TX

This book was fantastic. You should put a warning on it though – Be Prepared To Cry!! It amazed me how you were able to put into words what all of us have felt at the time we have had to put our dogs to sleep. My dad was a K-9 officer and his dog and best friend lived with us. I grew up living with a police dog everyday. Fred was a German Shepard and allowed us kids to do whatever we wanted to him but when it came time for work we could not get near Dad. He was incredible and saved my dad’s life several times by his heroic actions and didn’t even think twice about risking his own life for my dad. It was awful when he died and we all miss him everyday.

Brian from OH

This is my trucking buddy Fred.
He travels all around the country with me. I’m a truck driver with a large company. Fred and I love your show. Fred told me to never bite a lib it leaves a bad taste in your mouth! I can’t wait to buy your book.

Chris from ID

Dear Mark:

My husband and I are regular listeners to your show and huge dog lovers. We were listening one night as you discussed your book “Rescuing Sprite,” and although I enjoyed listening to you discuss it on the radio, I knew in my heart I would not read it fearing it would be way too painful. Well, a friend of mine thought differently and sent it to me. I just finished reading it about an hour ago and was so moved I wanted to shoot this e-mail off.

About the time your family was struggling with Sprite, my family was struggling with my Otis who passed away 11/5/06. He was around 15; a 45lb shepherd/collie mix. We don’t know exactly how old he was because we found him on the side of a highway 14 years earlier, took him home and there he stayed. The last two years of his life were so very difficult for us. He was suffering from a brain tumor, or so we think. He was often dizzy, disoriented and confused. He forgot how to do many basic things including how to walk out of our NYC apartment building for his daily walks, but we did everything we possibly could for him. (more…)