Thank you so much for your loving book and sharing so much.

When my pomeranian, Aurelius. died as a result of multiple organ failure at the age of thirteen, my husband and I were heartbroken. My husband had been a somewhat reluctant dog owner, but cried as mush as I did to lose our “puppy”.
The house seemed empty that January and my husband began scouring the internet in search of another pup to love. We had about resigned ourselves to a long wait for a nearby litter of pomeranians to be ready when someone suggested trying petfinder.com. It seemed impossible that anyone would put a beloved pet, much less a pomeranian, in a shelter, but I tried.

Much to my surprise a shelter near us featured a young adult pomeranian who was in need of a home. We went to the shelter’s adoption event that very day and met “Picasso”. He seemed aloof not at all like our beloved Aurelius, who wa always quick to offer a friendly tail wag and bark.

The lady in charge of the event told us that “Picasso” had suffered a loss too, that his mistress had died suddenly (the same week as Arelius) and that her family had dropped him at a shelter (a kill shelter). Seems we had misjudged him and that we had grief in common with this pom-boy. What we had mistaken for aloofness was the sorrow and confusion that we were experiencing too!

We adopted Picasso, renamed him Topsy, and healed together. It took Topsy months to bark and be happy, but he has become as affectionate and loyal a friend as we could have dreamed of.

And somewhere, maybe, our Aurelius realizes that our inability to be without a dog is a tribute to him.

Cara from NJ

Meet Teddy, our 4th dog. We named him in honor of a great President, T.R., the roughrider who spent a few years in the badlands of North Dakota. Teddy is our 2nd rescue dog….he is family to along with another rescue dog Snoop, plus fellow Scottish Terriers Bushy and Beasley.

We love Mark Levin almost as much as we love our dogs. He is one of the nicest people on the planet!

Great book Mark…you truly are “The Great One!”

Scott from ND

Even though we had to say good-bye to Harvard, this story isn’t sad. Harvard is still very much alive, and our pain at having to part with him was softened by our knowledge that he has a great destiny ahead of him as a guide dog for the blind.

The guide dog group that bred Harvard believes that family-raised puppies turn out much better than kennel-raised pups. So they farm out all their beautiful puppies –golden retrievers, German shepherds, and labradors like Harvard– to volunteer families. And our young son volunteered.

So Harvard was brought to us, his puppy-raising family, when he was just 7 weeks old — a tiny tornado of sleek black fur, weighing only about 10 pounds.

Seventeen months and 70 rambunctious pounds later, after our son had taught him his basic obedience (sit! rest! down!), and we’d all learned to love him, Harvard was taken back to Guide Dog School for his specialized training.

And there, to our amazement, our loopy lab learned how to walk calmly in harness, how to gently “pull” a blind human around obstacles, how to cross streets safely. He just graduated with flying colors, and is now ready to be matched up with his new human.

So we’ll never get to see our wacky, silly, happy-tailed Harvard again — because once he’s bonded with his new owner, there can be no more contact with his puppy-raising family.

But we do have something to look forward to: After he’s settled in with his new human, we’ll get a letter telling us a little about that new owner, and how Harvard helps him or her to have a better life. We can hardly wait to get that letter!

(By the way, the name “Harvard” was chosen by the guide dog organization — if I’d had my druthers, Mark, I would’ve named him “Hillsdale” !)

Here’s a photo of Harvard doing his beseeching act. That’s the goofy look he’d put on whenever he thought he might be able to finagle a treat.

Joyce from NJ

I’ve been a dog lover my whole life. We’ve lost 3 German Shepherds in my 32 years and I dread the day that the 2 I have now pass on. They were the first that were truly mine and depended on me for everything. They’re older now and I think about it every day.

It can take years to get to know a human but a dog can melt your sole and steal your heart in hours.

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of hosting a Canine Explosive Course flunky. They weren’t prepared for a flunky of his caliber and expected him to be going to Iraq. Always a sucker we let him stay for a couple days. Determined not to get attached I attempted to keep my distance. This guy just wouldn’t allow that to happen. Three days later when the company called with his travel arrangements and told us he would leave the next day, my 3 year old and I cried. I still tear up just thinking about him. THREE DAYS! It only took THREE DAYS to fall in love with him.

We still miss him. He remained a flunky and was sent for more training. At least I know he isn’t in Iraq though, he was soft and didn’t have what it takes to make it over there. He’d rather be on the couch I’m afraid.

Thanks for your book, your show, and this forum….

Jessica from VA

We met Mickey at the emergency animal hospital on the horrible day that we learned that our golden retriever would not survive her bout with pnemonia. Mickey was brought there by the beautiful people from Eleventh Hour Rescue, in an attempt to save his life. It was fate that Mickey would survive his bout with parvo, a life threatening puppy disease, and our fortune to be able to adopt him.

Mickey has been the light of our lives for the past three years. His needs were simple. He wanted to be near us…on the couch, sleeping in the bed, playing in the back yard, traveling in the car…but he was so timid with strangers, that in June 07 we decided to get a puppy for Mickey, to keep him company while we were away at school and at work.
Our new pup, Molly loved Mickey. We had many hours of pleasure this past summer watching them play and rough-house together. Three year old Mickey was like a puppy again!
In August, Mickey was diagonosed with a brain tumor. The tumor was aggressive, and in two short weeks, it completely diminished Mickey’s quality of life. We tried every medical intervention at our disposal to abate the growth of the tumor, but we were unable to save Mickey. We needed to make the tough decision.
My husband, sons and I were present in a room of the same emergency animal hospital that we met Mickey in three years ago…this time to say goodbye to him.

We are better people beacuse Mickey was a part of our lives. That is not what we expected when we adopted him. It happened because we loved him. God bless Mickey and Sprite, and all the animals who need us, and who save us.

Joanne from NJ

I was so involved in hearing your story of Sprite and putting him to sleep that I cannot remember driving home from work tonight. I just put our Boykin Spaniel, Chloe, to sleep after discovering a huge tumor of the spleen and liver. She was 13 and adored by all of us. The vet gave me the diagnosis in the morning and we agreed to put her to sleep at 4:00 in the afternoon. She told me to be back at the vet with my husband but go home and love her and give her anything she wanted. I did just that – fixed her a pimento cheese sandwich, a hershey bar and a small amount of ice cream. She was thrilled and then we lay on the floor and cried and cried until we took her to the vet. It was very peaceful, private and dignified. We went back later to pick up her ashes and then the vet sent us a wonderful children’s style book called Dog Heaven by Cynthia Ryland. All the staff wrote a personal message in the book – it meant so much. Tell your wife, Kendall, hello for me. She sold my stationery for years (Kiddie Kards). I so enjoy hearing you with Sean Hannity. You have inspired me to get another dog.

Beverly from GA