Our rescue dog’s name is Cassandra. We rescued her in March of 2005. When we got to the shelter another woman was holding her. When she heard we came to the shelter just to see this little Pappion she hand her over to my soon to be bride, Kathy. She was such a cute little dog, she maybe weighed in at 5 or 6 lbs. Kathy just had to have her. The people at the shelter told us her name was Fifi. The name did not fit her. In the car on the way home Kathy asked me what should we name her. Because of her colors I said ‘Cassandra’. Our new dog’s colors reminded me of the actress, Cassandra Peterson, as herself and not as Elvira.

One evening a mole got into the house. And before I could get home with the traps Cassandra captured the mole. Kathy opened the patio door and Cassandra took the mole outside and released the mole, probably she wanted to play with it.

Cassandra is a great loving dog. She loves to give you kisses on your nose. She is now 11 1/2 years old. I hope we have many more years with her.

— Jeff from Round Lake, IL

Hi I’m Nate and I’m ten years old. I have 2 dogs named Texas and Olly. Texas is a Chocolate Lab and Olly is an Airedale Terrier. I have a very funny story to tell you about and how we ended up with two dogs. My dad bought Texas for me as a 3rd birthday present. Texas has always been very energetic and lively. We live in a rural part of Pennsylvania about an hour and a half west of Philadelphia and when Texas was 2 years old he ran away from home and that is where my story starts. It was a fall weekend and my neighbor was hunting near our house and Texas followed him as he left at the end of the day. Texas is an outside dog and we leave him loose on our property which is wooded and not near any other houses. We have a wireless fence so Texas does not run off. This day we thought the fence was on and it just so happened that it was not. We looked for him for the next two weeks but to no avail. We placed ads and called the local humane society and police departments. My mom also called the local radio but after a month of looking we still had no Texas. We love dogs and had a big hole in our family so we started to think about possibly getting another dog. We found some folks on the other side of the state that had Airedale puppy that no one had taken. We made a Saturday family trip to get our new puppy and we had a blast. So the next few weeks were very busy with our new puppy. Well this is the funny part of our story. After seven weeks away from home we got the call from the Harrisburg Humane society and they had our Texas from 2 days after we lost him. We had not made contact with them because it is over 40 miles away. They had not saw the tattoo on his belly and when they spotted it they called us immediately and we went and picked him up. We were very thankful to have our Texas back.

— Nate from Cornwall, PA

Ginger is my shepherd yellow lab mix. She is 12 and has been a certified therapy dog for 5 1/2 years with hundreds of hours of visits. She retired this year because her rearleg strength has been steadily deteriorating noticeably over the past nine months due to degenerative myelopathy (equivalent to multiple sclerosis). It’s sad to see this coming on. I know this isn’t reasonable to think but the people who she visited throughout the years to chear up don’t know her plight.She’s struggling but just a couple of people know of it. I pray for strength in myself everyday and a miracle for her.

— Bill from Warren, MI

In the summer of ’98, just a few months after losing my black Lab Buddy to cancer, I saw an ad in the Washington Post for 2 Labs that the owner was giving away. I went to see the dogs where they had lived since puppies. They were now 2 and 2 1/2 years old. The yellow English Lab, Clyde, was the quieter and smarter of the two. Louie was a redhead whose papers said that he was a yellow lab.(???) He had been bred to be a hunting dog and was always wired. I used to say that he would play ball until his heart exploded. I was a little leary about adopting 2 dogs who had been raised in a yard and not spent much time in a house. I told the owner that I would give it a try for a couple of weeks and see if they adjusted to a more domestic life. They settled in quickly. They loved the freedom of a couple of acres to run and play ball on. Clyde was fond of chasing golf balls after I would hit them across the pasture. Louie just loved tennis balls. They both were crazy about having a pool. They could spend hours belly flopping into the pool after tennis balls.

The boys became my total responsibility in 2000 when my husband and I separated. The Separation Agreement actually stated that the dogs were to stay with me. My ex moved into an apartment which did not allow pets, anyway. The boys and I moved to Ashburn in 2005. The new house had a fenced yard and miles of trails to walk. The boys were older now and didn’t really miss the pool and acreage to run on. They were such wonderful company for me. Each time I would come home, Louie would meet me at the door with a ball in his mouth and his tail wagging his body.

In 2006, Louie had surgery to have a plate put in his leg to support the ligament he had damaged. He did well after that.

The next year, Clyde had severe breathing problems and I was told that the flaps in his throat to keep him from asparating were not opening properly to allow him to breath. He had surgery to tie one of the flaps back. He subsequently was diagnosed with cancer but seemed to be doing okay.

In December, 2008, my mother died from pancreatic cancer. Less than a month later, Clyde also died from cancer. Within a week of Clyde’s death, Louie collapsed on the kitchen floor after playing ball with my daughter. She and I picked him up and carried him to the vet who said that he was bleeding internally and there was nothing to be done. I had to let him go.

Clyde was 13 1/2 and Louie was 13. Ripe old ages for Labs. I still miss them.

— Martha from Ashburn, VA

Thanks for writing Rescuing Sprite. We just had to put our dog to rest and much of our Casey’s last days (pacing, etc) were similar to Sprite’s. We had other similarities, too, such as cremation and final resting place.

When the end was near, we also wondered which day was to be best, and could we put it off a few more days. We took Casey to the vet and we usually had to be firm on the leash to bring him in. On the last day, he slipped out of the car and walked to the vet’s door and laid down, waiting for us to catch up. Clearly, he was telling us it was the right time.

— Steve from Hawley, PA

When I heard Mark talk about poor Griffin with a bladder tumor tonight, I just had to post a picture of my little boy Rags. He too had a tumor in his bladder. He also wore doggie underpants and if I don’t mind saying, looked mighty fine in them. But as you can see by the photo, Rags could always wear clothes well. This photo was taken during my stage mother period. I had Campbells Soup as a client & was working with them on anti-fraud campaign for their workers compensation program. I was convinced Rags was going to be the next McGruff Take a Bite Out of Crime dog. Alas, it was not to be. But I got a lot of free soup. And Rags was the best dog that ever was.

— Jeanne from Drexel Hill, PA