I just finished reading , Rescuing Sprite. Thank you for your heart warming tale.
I am 67 years old. The first dog I clearly rememb er was Rover. Rover was a full grown St. Bernard that my Dad bought at a horse auction in 1944. He came with papers and had been a Sargent in the US Army. I was four and a half years old at the time. The third of four children and the only girl. My mother thought my dad was nuts to bring a military dog into the house with four kids the oldest eight years old the youngest months old. My two older brothers who had gone to the auction with my dad said Rover is a real sweetie, don’t be afraid of him. Well, my mom was won over by this gentle giant. Rover wouldn’t let anyone near the infant except her or a responsible adult.
(more…)

Our beloved dog was a mini schnauzer by the name of Molly. We purchased her from a near by pet store in Kent, Washington were we lived after retiring from the Air Force. There she was, the only little puppy in this huge cage. She was so cute. We fell in love with her on the spot. We are truck drivers and we haul for the military. She went with us everywhere. When she was 11 years old, our vet informed us that she had a tumor on her spleen and we needed to make the decision to either put her down or have them perform surgery. Well, the only answer was surgery. There was no way that we could put her down. NOT an option. We had to leave for work and had made arrangements with our neighbor (who loved her just as we did), to pick her up after surgery. When we reached Malmstrom Air Force Base the next day, our neighbor called us and told us that she died in her arms. We were crushed. Our baby was gone. Friends from church buried her in our back yard before we returned home. Our friend who is the funeral director at the local mortuary, gave us a beautiful bronze marker complete with her name and date of death. Our neighbor planted beautiful tulips that return every year and the memory of Molly still stays with us even though we now have two more mini schnauzers that we love as well.

John from IN

Rufus a dashound/wirehaired terrier mix, is 15 years old and she (I’ll explain her name in a moment) has diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, and almost total blindness. I wanted to write about Rufus, because I don’t know how many more days or weeks, she will be with me. She received her name because I wanted a dog named Rufus, but this little female puppy became available. After deep thought, I named her Rufus, and that was only the first thing that was unique about my precious dog.
(more…)

In May of 2006 we had to put one of our two 13 year old dachshunds to sleep. It was unquestionably the most devastating thing that I’ve had to do so far in life.

Rollie-Poly was the rotund cheerful male and I will always remember him in different ways: Deputy Dawg (always checking up on us late at night to make sure that all was well with the world); The Peacemaker (he’d be right there putting his paws on our feet and looking up at us with those huge liquid brown Marty Feldman eyes if either of us spoke out of tone); The Orphan Kid Crying for his Supper (each morning and night he’d start whimpering exactly five minutes before meals because he was absolutely convinced his Mom would forget to feed him if he didn’t); and The Digger (he loved to wrap a ball in a blanket and then ferociously start “excavating” for it). However, I guess I’ll remember him most fondly as “The Little Boy in the Outfield”.
(more…)

My brother and I are huge fans of your show and I had to share our dog Cassie with you. She was the kind of dog you always treated like a puppy no matter how old she was.

We got our dog Cassie from our neighbor when she was a few weeks old, that was in 1991. She was with us all through high school and college. Being that I was the oldest and the first to graduate college, I lived at home for a few years afterwards with her. It was for this reason that I always felt closest with her.

When I moved out of my parents home after my third year teaching I had to leave Cassie. She passed away shortly afterward but we will always miss her.

Thank you Mark for all you do and for allowing us to share our stories with you. God bless.

Phil from NY

HI, Mark, I just finished reading your book and I will pass it on to my son who wants to read it also. I enjoy listening to you talk about your dogs. I loved all the love and warmth that I received via your story. I love animals and at present have two shelter cats. I tried to get older cats as I know they are the hardest to be adopted. They are Samantha and Shamus and I think they think they are dogs as they give me so much love and follow me everywhere in the house. Thank you so much for sharing your joyful and sad experiences with me.

Joan from TX