Our beagle, butch, have my husband and i very well trained and housebroken and all it took was his funny little smile and the way he cocks his head as if to say, are you talking to me. he is 2 yrs old now and slowing down, but seems to still have the glint of puppy antics in his eyes.

— Pamela from Spokane Valley, WA

Just one hour ago I lost my (almost) 14 year old kitty,  Like you, I am devastated…even  though I knew it had to be done because he was soooo unhappy as his health was sliding down and down at an unbelieveable rate.  Even with a couple other kitties in the house, I already miss him soooooo much!  Mikey was “special!!!!

I spent most of the day holding Mikey and rocking him while we discussed what had to happen.  I hope he understood!!

— Marilyn from Alexandria, VA

I just finished reading Rescuing Sprite and wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed it. I laughed and cried making comparisons to our dog Hobbes, who we had to put to sleep. I lost my Dad when I was 50 and Mom when I was 60, both to different forms of cancer, but nothing could compare to losing Hobbes. I will recommend reading your book to all my pet friends. I too got a replacement dog sooner than I was ready for but Maddy is now also part of our family team. I wish you would have included more color photos of Sprite and Pepsi in your book. Thanks for writing it and it helped me remember my old friend Hobbes.

— Rob from Torrington, CT

Its been 23 weeks and 2 days since I lost my best friend. She was a wolf Pomeranian (that mainly described her coloring). Her name was Butters and she was almost 9 when we lost her unexpectedly. It was July 20 and it was a horribly hot day where I live, I believe the hottest all summer reaching 112 degrees F. I had just moved away from home almost a month earlier and I was just getting adjusted to “adult” life. My sister had to stop by our mom’s house to let the dogs out and accidently left Butters outside. You see Butters had a tendency to take awhile outside and my sister was in a rush and trying to calm a screaming 4 yr old down. I don’t blame her one bit. Now Butters has separation anxiety her entire life. I raised her from 6 weeks old and she was my baby. So we think when she realized she was left outside she panicked and she managed to squeeze herself through a hole in our fence half her size. My mom arrived home from work 3-4 hrs later and found her beneath our neighbor’s tree in their front yard. I was at work at the time so my mom called my oldest brother not knowing how to break the news to me. So I get a call from my brother, which is odd cause we don’t typically talk on the phone, and he says, “Butters is dead” just like that I kid u not. Then I replied, “Please tell me this is some kind of awful joke.” and then I broke down right there at my job in front of at least 5 coworkers and 3-4 customers. I have never cried so hard in my life. Even writing this brings gut wrenching sobs out of me. So my brother came and got me and I’m crying from the depths of my soul the entire car ride there, making it worse by telling myself that she’ll be fine when I get there. When we finally pull up to my mom’s house I dove out of the car to where my mom was sitting in the grass next to my Butters. I will never be able to get the image of her out of my head. She was stiff with her tongue sticking out her eyes were open and the flies were just starting to come around. And I sat there and held her close to me and cried. I still feel as though my heart was ripped out because that dog meant more to me than most people. You see I have dealt with serious depression for a few years now and she was the one thing that kept me from committing suicide. She was all the good parts of my personality with fur. I just need to know that the pain gets easier to deal with….

— Leah from Indianapolis, IN

June 29, 2011 we said goodbye to our beloved Solo.  He was approximately 18 years old and was the sweetest boy.  He was a Chow/Golden mix, who looked like a lion or a bear but had a heart of gold.  We were the fourth owners of Solo.  He got his name because when he was approximately a year old he was tied to the door of a shelter and when the workers found him they named him “Solo” because he was by himself.
He was adopted by a single man named, Larry, and he had Solo for about 7 years before Larry died of cancer.  His last wish was to make sure that Solo had a good home.  My parents loved Solo and he was Sadie’s (my parents dog) best friend.   My parents had Solo for about 2 years, but when my dad suddenly died, my mom had to come live with us and she brought both Solo and Sadie with her.  We eventually ended up with Solo completely, and he became part of our family.  We had him for 7 years.  He loved flowers (we called him Ferdinand) and kites flying in the air.  He was a quiet companion.  He would just sit by your side for hours.  He never barked.  He loved his short walks.  All the neighbor kids would just marvel at him and point at him because they hadn’t seen a dog like him.
We have never had a dog with such a gentle disposition. He was a best friend to our daughter, Madison.  This picture of him was taken in October 2009 at approximately 16 years of age.  We weren’t sure how much longer he would be around because big dogs like him don’t usually live to such an old age, but he surprised and delighted us, because he was around almost another 2 years.
I love this pet section of the website.  I have enjoyed reading the stories of people and their animal companions.  I just wanted to share Solo, a.k.a. “Buddy” with others.  He was a dog worth remembering and will forever live in our hearts.

— Bev from Cypress, CA

We love your passion for doggies.  We had to put down our 15 year old Doxie on Christmas Eve; She had full blown Alzheimers.  We did everything to keep her going.  It was heartbreaking to watch her decline.     We took her to an emergency Pet center.  The most compassionate woman vet helped us get through this process.   My husband said there was not a dry eye in the room as he held little KayCee while the vet gave her the final shot,  They had a group hug.  These little packages of love always end up breaking your hearts, but it is worth it.

— Judy from Waynesboro, VA