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Listener Stories

Max

Dear Mark,
I listen to your show every night here in San Diego, and I really enjoy hearing your heartfelt feelings about animals and in particular your comments about your life with your beloved pets.

As I write this today, my beloved 22 year old cat Max is lying in my bedroom dying. He can’t get up to walk, and he hasn’t been able to do any of the things he so loved to do.

I’ve been holding off the inevitable, but today I must face reality and take him in to be put to rest. I just felt compelled to write and tell you because I feel a connection to you and your experience with Sprite.

Thank you for your show. We’re all very lucky to have you to listen to. I look forward to reading your book.

 Respectfully, David from CA

Pepper

When my little sister Delilah was 4 years old, she received the love of her life. A beautiful black Lab puppie and she named him Pepper.

Pepper slept at the foot of her bed every night. He was her guardian. Even my Mom and my stepfather got a little growl if they tried to enter the room (friendly growl LOL!!).They didn’t mind because they knew Delilah was safe.

My grandmother lived 3 houses down and when Delilah left for school, she would tell Pepper “Go to Nana’s house”. Pepper knew exactly where to go (Took a pee on the way) and Nana would be waiting at the top of her stairs waiting for Pepper to run up. He liked going to Nana’s house because Nana spoiled him with treats (against my mother’s wishes), but that was their secret.

As Delilah got older, Pepper & Nana aged as well. When it was time to do his business, Nana would ask him to bring her “White shoes” from the closet and he would prance out of her bedroom with her white “walking shoes” in his mouth.He NEVER made a mistake. When the mailman came, she sent him downstairs and the mailman put the mail in his mouth, and when her paper was delivered, he’d race down to pick it up for her too.

During Delilah’s High School years, Nana’s legs were starting to hurt so she would schedule her doctor’s appointments along with Pepper’s Vet appointments to get their cortisone shots together. I never forget how Pepper would pause at each step going next to Nana as they both went up the stairs together.

Delilah went to college and became an RN. Pepper started losing his sight, then he became deaf and he started limping. Delilah knew he was not well, but Pepper never complained. He recognized all of us by scent and continued to sleep at her bedside.

One day, Pepper came to Delilah as she was sitting on the couch and put his head on her lap. She said she knew what he wanted. She said he somehow told her “I’m tired”,”You’re all grown up now and I want to rest” (her words exactly).

So, Delilah reluctantly made the decision herself to schedule the last visit to the Vet and arranged the cremation process. She was very strong and told my mom she wanted to do this herself, so my mom and family said bye to Pepper and Delilah picked him up and put him in the front seat of her car and drove off. She had a plan.

They stopped at their favorite ice cream shop and she bought Pepper his last vanilla cone. He licked it happily as he always did, and finished it completely!!

Becuse Delilah was a nurse, she arranged with the Vet to hold Pepper while he was being put to sleep. It was very peaceful. She also arranged to be present when he was cremated because she wanted to make sure the ashes were his. She bought a beautiful box with a bronze plaque with his name on it and brought him home. Pepper was 17 years old.

He still guards her by her bed of this day.

– Laura from CA

Sagen

My dog Sagen passed away in 2001, every morning i gave him some corn flakes with milkfor breakfast. one morning i had no milk and tryed to give the corn flakes dry, he looked at the bowl, looked at me, took his paw and pushed to bowl to me and walked away

Dan from NY

Roz

Roz was found shot with a bullet in her neck and 3 broken ribs.

I’m happy to say, she wasn’t Water-boarded!

My wife rescued the sweetest dog in the world, so I created this collage that represents all her personality.

Mark, Ronald Reagan smiles big when he hears you speak. You are the greatest.

God Bless You.

Joe from OH

Birdie

In Oct. 2006 my wife and I took an 18yo male Chihuahua into our home. He was our daughter’s dog but they weren’t getting along. We loved the little guy but knew his days were numbered.One night I was in bed asleep. My wife came to the room in tears. “it’s Turbo” she said in tears. He was on a pillow shaking and struggling to breath. I held him on my lap for about an hour before the seizure passed and he slept. The next morning he was alert but couldn’t stand. I knew what we had to do. Can’t see keys for tears.

a couple months later we adopted Birdie, a beautiful fawn female. She is the opposite of Turbo. Shy but all Chi.
If you have heard that Chihuahuas are wild ankle biters you heard wrong. They are the most friendly, loving ,intelligent dogs going. Just be willing to turn your life over to them.

Jim From AZ

The Great Cinder Dog

Mark…I am a 70 year old, politically incorrect, Patriotic, Christian, AMERICAN, male. Needless to say—“You’re my kind of guy”. I raised “The Great Cinder Dog” from a puppy. A neighbor’s Lab Retriever had 3 pups and gave me the pick of the litter. Cinder was the biggest of the lot and grew up to be a fairly large dog. My life long friend, John Boyd, and Cinder Dog died within a month of each other in1986…To this day I am not sure for which I grieve the most–
“The Great Cinder Dog”

A broad-chested black girl
With a brown-eyed savvy look
Visual presumption established
Her ancestry as Labrador-ian.
She, however, was native Californian–
A city gal that loved the country.
She slept in the back of a Chevy pickup,
And took care of the tools.
She tolerated toddlers but challenged strangers!
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