My Wife and I are breeders of Standard Poodles and have produced 8 litters of dogs during the past12 years. We have produced numerous champions and have had two of our dogs entered at the Westminster Kennel Club Competiton in NYC. The story I am about to tell is about one of the puppies, Lucky Simon, from a litter produced in 2004. That litter contained 5 puppies each weighing 1 pound. They all appeared normal and there was no problem whelping them. On the 10th day when the other 4 puppies began trying to get up on their feet this one puppy seemed unable to, and was moving about using a breast stroke type of motion with his front paws. We did research and discovered he was a “swimmer” puppy that most veternarians “put down”. We brought him to our veternarian to have him euthanized on the 12th day as he seemed in pain and distress.
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Mark, heard you on Hannity on Monday. The interview was very moving. We have a 5 year old collie, Buddy and a 3 year old Persian cat, Sandy Rose. Both of them were rescued from animak\l shelters. They have brought so much joy into our lives. May God Bless you and your family – pets included.

Bill & Patricia  from NE

Barkley died peacefully in our arms 10/19/07. He died lying in his favorite spot between our chairs, and had what looked like a seizure. He was gone within 15 minutes while we petted him and talked to him and told him we loved him. He was 12 years, six months and one week old, and we enjoyed every second that we had with him.

He loved going out in the boat with us, and watching us water ski. When he was dying, I told him to pretend he was in the boat with his ears flapping in the breeze. When he heard the word “boat” his eyebrows went up–his spirit was ready to go, but his body was too weak. He stayed with me through two back surgeries, and was always there to greet me when I came home from work with his wagging tail and bright eyes.

Needless to say, we are devastated, but are grateful that he had a good life and did not suffer. Here is a picture of him doing his favorite thing.

The ache in our hearts will never go away, and the hole in our lives is huge.

Ruth from OR

This is about my little girl Soft Coated Wheaten terrier Abigail, also known as “Wait For Me” because we spent all night (from 6:30 pm to 5:00 am) at the Newark, NJ airport, waiting for her to arrive from her Phoenix, AZ breeder when she was 11 weeks old. The plane was held up by storms, but Abigail was happy as a lark to see her new mom. A few minutes later, she fell asleep in my arms as soon as we started up the car. Three weeks ago, Abi was diagnosed with Protein-Losing Nephropathy, a kidney condition that is the most common killer of wheatens, and she is only eight years old. It is breaking my heart into small pieces. We are going from day to day with many medications, a special diet, and twice-weekly infusions of saline solutions that act as a low-level dialysis.

She feels much better after the infusions and doesn’t have to be enticed to eat then. I treasure my little girl dog. Abigail has been everywhere with me, from Philadelphia to Germany to Florida and point in between. She loves everyone, including cats, other dogs, and everyone she meets and greets with great enthusiasm. Abi loves watching television, especially when she sees other dogs, whom she tries to touch on the screen. She is still a happy -go-lucky dog and doesn’t understand, thank God, that she is a very sick little girl. Blessedly, here is no pain. I live in fear of the day when she will tell me that it’s time to go. When that day comes, my wonderful memories of eight years with the most loving dog in the world will sustain me. Until then, I will try not to cry, because Abi knows when I’m unhappy. The picture shows her in her favorite place, looking out the window to keep up to date on who walks by and to let me know when someone comes to visit.

Ingrid from Florida

Recently I lost my Boxer Bubba after having him as my best friend for 11years.
He received his name in a unique way. My wife wanted to name our new dog Elvis as she is an Elvis Presley fan, well we put this beautiful little boxer puppy in the back seat where he began to pass gas that even though a cool night in Oct caused us to roll down all the windows!

I told my wife that’s no Elvis that’s a BUBBA!
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My wife and I do foster care for the Humane Society of Indianapolis. We do rehab and therapy for those dogs that come in and need more attention, quiet, and rest that the folks in the kennel have time for. We have no dogs of our own, but we love these as ours for the time that they are here until they go to their “forever” home, sometimes that is a few weeks for them to just calm down and sometime it is for many months of recovery. I believe that the dogs that come to us know that coming to the Humane Society and ultimately to us is the best thing that ever happened to them, as many have had horrible situations, and most recognize us even years later. I miss them great lately, and I will always remember Bogie, Laddy, Niles, Piper, Patsy, Piper, Shelby, and especially Kishka, who came to us not even able to walk, and in fact I had to pick her up to take her out to do her business for the first few days, but ended up running every mile with me while I trained for a 1/2 marathon. I love her…and I am even happier for all of them because for as good of a home as we gave them, we were able to place them in homes better than we could give them.

Chris from IN