I often hear the stories some of your listeners tell about their pets and it is amazing to me how much we love them.We had to put our 12 year old toy poodle asleep, today.He had Stage IV heart failure, in which fluid is not longer been pump effectively by the heart.Therefore, global edema ensues and respiratory and cardiac arrest is a possibility.We are all heart broken.I can now relate to the pain one can suffer when a love one passes away.He is my friend, my brother, my loyal companion.Justin lived a long life,we have great memories to share and remember him by. Justin I love you and rest in peace. May be one day we will all meet again somewhere in the after life. Thank you for all you brought to our lives.

— David from Bayside, NY

One day on a whim, I contacted a Pomeranian rescue to see if they had any dogs needing homes. The attendant said she knew of some pups needing homes, and put me in contact with a gentleman who said he had 3 half Japanese chin and 1/2 chihuahua pups in need of a family. My son and I, grabbed my 2 grown nieces, and all but flew to his house.
When he brought out the pups, they were so adorable! 2 were barking and full of life, but one was timid, shy, and the tiniest thing we had ever seen. We adopted her, and she became our Cha-cha Belle. My nieces fell in love with her brother and sister so they adopted them, so all the pups went to good homes that day. It was a good day.
That night we placed Cha-cha in her crate, and the next morning we rushed to get her out to play and she was almost lifeless….we could not get her to wake up. We rushed her to our vet and were told that she was so tiny that her body had trouble keeping her sugar regulated and that she was suffering from hypoglycemia. Miraculously, they were able to revive her, but she told us that we had a long road ahead of us and that we still may not be able to save Cha-cha Belle. We were determined that this pup would be saved, so we brought her home armed with instructions on how to treat her condition. Our vet advised us not to leave her alone in case she had an episode. If she became lethargic, we needed to rub Karo syrup on her gums to revive her, and that she must be fed by syringe every 2 hours, even overnight. She only weighed 1 1/3 pound at the time, but the vet said if we could get her past the age of 4 months and hr weight up to 2lbs, then she would probably outgrow the sugar issue and be fine.
For 2 solid months, I fed our cha-cha every 2 hours and she traveled everywhere with us. She was so tiny and sweet, that people gathered around her everywhere we would go, and the fact that I barely slept for 2 months is nothing.
This pup turned out to be such a blessing, and helped fill the void in our hearts after losing Tallulah Belle. I am happy to say, that our Cha-cha Belle is 6 moths old, weighs 2 pounds, and is as strong as a tiny little ox.
Her personality is as big as a mountain, and the expression on her little face makes her appear to be smiling all the time. We are in love with this animal!
We may have thought we were rescuing her from the shelter, but in fact, Cha-cha Belle wound up rescuing us.

— Donrae from Sand Springs, OK

I got Samson in Jan 2007. He is a standard pischer that was abused and abandoned and we had adopted from a rescue group. Sam is 50 lb now, the weight for a large male of his breed, he was  28 lb when we got him. When we got Sam he was emaciated, covered with scars, sores, and with fur missing all over his body from malnutrition. Sam had never been in a house before, didn’t understand stairs or affection, and didn’t trust people at all. It took the better part of 2 years to rehabilitate Sam, he is now the best trained, and most affectionate of our 3 dogs. Support rescue organizations and your local no-kill shelters.

— Jason from St. Ann, MO

Today, Our rescue boy, Reggie crossed over the rainbow bridge. He was the most loving and precious baby boy that I have ever known. He was a boy that was left for dead on the steps of the Huntsville, Al human society. He was hurt so badly that his complete back part of his body was broken (hips, legs, back, ribs, tail) while hit in the head. What is amazing is that he was a champion show dog before his terrible treatment. He was a fighter the whole way, even when he lost the use of his back legs a week ago. We had to carry him out to go potty and carry him in the house. he just last night, drug himself down the hall to bed, so that he could that he could be near us. He last night started having seizures and we called the vet who told us what to do to help him. I knew this morning that he was going to cross over the rainbow bridge, but it is still hard as I keep looking for him and wanting to go in and hold him. He never complained as when we were holding him, nor when we had to pick him up from outside. He fought to stay alive, but God must have thought that it was better to have him in heaven with all the other babies, including sprite as he went fighting. He was a great Mama’s boy who loved to lay behind my arm especially in the winter, to sleep and keep warm. We rescued Reggie as you rescued sprite and we are planning on rescuing another baby daschand. We love and miss him so much already and I know that it isn’t looking like it will get better before it gets worse. My Reggie boy, I miss him and my heart hurts a lot.

— Sarah of Portland, TN

hearing you speak of your visits to the local animal shelters was certainly endearing and inspirational.

Then it became much more than that for our family. We recently lost our beloved Mac, a black Lab of 16 years, originally brought to us from someone who rescued him from an abusive environment. He was the most delightful presence in our lives for 16 years. Losing him was a most difficult trial.

I couldn’t imagine another dog taking his place, not even another Lab.

I followed your example and visited the local shelters every few days as well as going online to their websites seeing their new arrivals, looking for “just the right dog” to rescue. I wanted to rescue them all. It was tough to decide on only one. A few times I saw one or two or three I wanted to meet, and they were so quickly swept away, especially the puppies.

Finally one evening, I spotted a beautiful black & tan young dog in the back of one of the cages in a local shelter. I got his attention and he confidently walked up to the front, in a steady, laser-like eye contact with me.

I spoke a few kind words to him and he wagged his tail. As there were many other adoptable dogs I hadn’t seen yet, I decided to move on. I couldn’t go more than 10 feet away. I went back and there he was, sitting upright, proud and confident as could be.

It was minutes before closing time at the shelter. I hurriedly looked around for an attendant and found one who directed me to the adoption counter. I ran, knowing how some dogs get scooped up right away, and I knew deep in my heart that I couldn’t walk away from this pup. The Officers stayed past closing time to get me all set up to adopt this little guy.

When I picked him up the following day, I learned a little bit more about his past.

He was surrendered to the facility the same day I spotted him. He had a lot of scars on his legs, neck and head. How I missed them the day before, I do not know, perhaps his character showed that which is the natural core instinct of every dog: unconditional love.

He has been with us for only 9 days now, and I believe it is a mutual feeling between all of us that we belong together. He is the greatest joy to come into our lives for a long time. He is amazingly intelligent and so calm. That has given us the opportunity to learn a deeper understanding about raising a dog.

We have raised several dogs, yet this one we now call Gus is uniquely apart from the rest.

Gus is truly a Godsend. Mark, please continue to encourage people to visit their local shelters as you do. If more people visited the shelters and offered kind words as they passed each cage, it couldn’t be a bad thing. Who knows, perhaps someone else will discover rescuing a lost or abandoned animal adds more value to life than they imagined possible.

— John from Downey, CA

About 7 years ago we rescued Chico from the pound he was chihuahua and dachshund mix. They said he was1 1/2 to 2 years old and weighed 4 pounds you could see every bone in his little body it was love at first site for the whole family. Our oldest daughter was depressed and had talked about suicide and asked for a dog and  Chico was the one. we took him home and what a perfect dog after one week we let him out to go to the bathroom and someone had forgot and left the gate open. good old Chico went out did his thing and came right back in no need to close the gate any more good old Chico never left the yard without us. two weeks after we had him wife decided to walk him around the block without a leash on him no problem with good old Chico no need for the leash any more. Good old Chico never got more than 10 feet in front of you.

Chico would always wake me up to take him out at night. got up when I got up for work and had breakfast with me and then go back to bed. when we had supper he always sat at the front corner of the refrigerator as I have said Chico was the perfect dog.

Chico got to be 12 pounds and he was happy Our oldest daughter was much happier and she has said many times that it was Chico that saved her life. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to save Chico. He became ill a couple of weeks ago and deteriorated rappidly he was starting to suffer we made the hardest choice we had to let him go. We all miss him deeply but I seem to have been hit exra hard I havent been able to eat much and I can hardly sleep.  When I do sleep I wake up at his usual times expecting to see him beside my bed and when he’s not there I can’t get back to sleep.

— Kenneth from Portage, MI