I have a bit of an opposite take on the story. My father was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer and was only expected to last 2-3 months. He and my mother bought a dog around this time. Because of the dire situation that my dad was in, Jasmine was allowed to visit him in the Oncology Department on a daily basis. He lasted over a year and a half! To this day, Jasmine has enormous seperation issues. Everytime that she senses that someone is leaving she hides and pouts! Everytime someone comes home she is ecstatic! I did not live at home while this was happening, but she goes nuts everytime i come home to Mom’s house. I cannot think of a better feeling that I’ve had in my life at the moment. I guess the point is that we not only feel the loss of the “pet” but they feel the loss of us as well! That is where I see the the Lord’s Hand in this! By-the-way, I cried during your segment and plan to buy my Mom the book for Christmas. And borrow it from her when she’s done!

Benjamin from Wisconsin

When I heard you speak about Sprite, you touched a chord in my life. It seems that my deepest loves and losses have been my pets — humans notwithstanding. I have been blessed with many, though it seems the ones I miss most are those who meet a dramatic end. Rex, a beautiful German Shepherd, protected me in my youth. He escorted my brothers and I to the bus stop when we were in elementary school. Later, when we lived in Oregon and I was 15, he was 11. Although he was past his prime, he was a superb herder. Our neighbors horse was on our property and I commanded Rex to herd him off with a quick “Sick ’em”. Rex eagerly complied — he was great. The horse was not so eager to comply. It reared and trampled Rex. I shooed the horse off and tended to my wounded friend. Mom and Dad were away, I was without a license and Rex needed medical treatment. I tended to him as best as I could until Mom and Dad got home. I wanted them to take him to the vet so he could be healed, but that didn’t happen. We took Rex the next day, he was weak, failing in his fight for life. We lost him that day. I built his coffin, dug the hole and buried my best friend.

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Her name was Gillian..she was my number 4 little girl dog, my beach buddy, my two ball dog…mother of 11 heavenly pups…asking only for the sound of my voice or the touch of my hand…she was my most magnificent friend.

Mark, I have been through this anguish and loss 4 times in my life…each time unspeakably hard, rivers of tears and a heart that is so broken it’s difficult to know how it keeps beating.

All of my girls were Golden Retrievers. I still puddle up over the loss of my first, Peaches, and that was over 15 years ago. Then there was Sundae, my happy tail girl..and then the loss of my beloved sainted Penelope…I called her my little ferry boat..because when she went swimming she simply glided slowly into the water.
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Sarah is my 11 yr 5 mo purebred labrador retriever. She is an awsome lab and loves trucks and ducks. :) she had lost 30 over the past year going from 94 down to 55. because of not having the money and not a vet around in my small home area that would allow me to make pmts so she was deteriating slowly. I moved some 200 miles on the other side of anchorage and found a vet who would which I owe so much thanks no matter the outcome which surgery just last thursday gave us a victory.

Weeks leading up to this, I felt hopeless and disgusted at myself not being successful enough to even help my dog. I’m going to get off this dang social security disability and go back to work because i’m sick of being poor and not able to get by when things happen.
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I wanted to write about a kitty we had named “Samantha”. My husband and I went to a animal adoption fair in the hopes of finding a puppy. As we were looking for a dog we walked up the hill and saw all the cats. We looked into all of the cages and that’s when we saw “Samantha”.

She was so pretty and was the only cat that came to us when we had put our finger in the cage. She seemed like a very friendly and happy go lucky cat. At this point we did not know how old she was but we both knew that this was the cat that we wanted. The adoption lady told us that she was 12 years old and she was happy that someone wanted to adopt an older cat. My husband and I did not care how old she was, at that point we just wanted to take her home and make the rest of her life as good as it could possibly be.

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My dog Kublai was a Valentines gift from my wife. She left early one morning, and when she returned she put the little fur ball in the bed with me. He was a Chow-Lad mix, and he was my best friend for almost 15 years. For all those years through thick and thin he was my loyal friend. A couple months ago, he started getting weak. It happened very suddenly. About 4 days passed and he couldn’t walk. When I took him to the vet , he tried to hop in the backseat and wagged his tail.

When he was young he didn’t like the car. If I’d known he enjoyed it ,I would have took him for rides more often. In retrospect, there’s lots of things I wish I had done lots of things for him. I could tell by the vets reaction during the examination that my buddy was very ill. his kidneys had stopped working and his organs were shutting down. I made a promise that I would be a true friend to him and would not prolong his suffering for my own selfishness. Now, as i stood numd in the bright exam room, that time had come. i could’nt imagine my life without his warm (and slightly smelly) fur to pet. His adoring big brown eyes greeting me when I awake. See his wildly wagging tail and expressive face waiting for me when I come home from work. For 15 years this wonderful dog reminded me that there was innocence and goodness in the world. My wife brought me a cheeseburger. I feed it to him as he lay on the shiny steel table. I told him what a good friend he was, I massaged his back while he dug into his cheeseburger and told him how much I loved him. He enjoyed his burger very much and I enjoyed watching him relish a forbidden treat. I held his wooly head and looked into his eyes as the vet gave him the shot. I wispered in his ear how grateful I was for his love, how brave he was and how much I hoped I would see him again. There was no thunder clap. The lights didn’t dim. None of the things I felt should accompany the departure of such and wonderful soul. I only watched as his great heart slowed, he went limp in my arms and the light left his loving brown eyes.
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