I thought you would enjoy hearing about our latest Rescued Italian Greyhound – Mariah. She has great “taste” in literature. In fact, she has eaten both Liberty & Tyranny and Rescuing Spright! She pulled both out of a pile of books! She seems to enjoy your books so much that I put your dad’s book up out of the way quickly so she couldn’t see the name Levin on the cover.
She came from an abusive BYB program in WI so we excuse some of her odd behaviors. She was afraid of the world and we have worked to make her a happy little girl!
She is the cute little red girl looking the opposite direction in the picture. that’s our Mariah.
The other two girls are Sadie who is 13 and was rescued at age 6 and Annabelle (Annie) who we adopted at 7 months from Rescue. Sadie and Annie are both registered Therapy Dogs and go to two nursing homes and a psych hospital every week. It’s a great thing to be able to help people through my dogs.

— Doreen in Vernon, VT

I have rescued several animals in my life including a cat from a shelter and 3 older dogs that were considered hard to adopt out. All of them are and were very special to me.

In July of 2002, I rescued a 5-year-old yellow Labrador Retriever from the shelter. I named him Barney. He was always a “velcro” dog, sticking with me everywhere. Each time I returned home after being gone, I was showered with his kisses.

Barney was protective of me and he so appreciated what I did for him. In January this year, he succumbed to his battle with cancer that had spread throughout his body and I had to mercifully put him to sleep.

Although I greatly miss my sweet Barney, I always am grateful for the 7 1/2 years that we had together. Each time I see one of his big Nylabones that he loved to play fetch with, I am filled with warm memories of him.

Thanks so much, Mark, for providing this page.

— Linda from Anaheim, CA

This is Clancy and he was my best buddy in the world. He passed on Sunday, May 30, 2010..his little heart was just so tired. My husband travels allot with his civilian and military jobs and our family has grown up with Clancy. He had such a great personality..he loved us so much..and we loved him..he was the best…he followed me everywhere, was happy when i was happy and sad when i was…he always just was so happy..he loved to go camping and on Friday he was so excited..he sat on my husband lap leaving the drive and i took a happy picture of him…he has only been ill for 3 weeks..it was so fast.. i will love him forever and he will always be my best buddy…

— Ellen from Albuquerque, NM

I lost my little Beagle Haley a couple of years ago. I was taught by my Father not to cry. I have never had any trouble keeping my emotions locked up inside. After my little “Fatty” died I lost control of all of my emotions. I tried so hard not cry but just couldn’t control myself. My wife seemed to learn to cope with Haley’s death after a while. I still to this day cannot talk too much about Haley or I start getting choked up. My wife thinks it is not normal for me to be this upset after this amount of time, but I feel guilty if I am not upset when I think about my dog. My wife read your book and recommended that I read it. I agreed and read it. It took me a little while considering I am not much of a reader (kind of ironic since I am a teacher). Your book made such an impact on me. I really and truly appreciate your book. I was amazed that as I read page after page I felt and have experienced each emotion that you wrote in your book. I distinctly remember reading after Sprite died that you felt like you executed him. That was the the biggest thing I connected with while reading your book. Little Haley died January 3rd 2008 and I still to this day feel like I executed her. She died because her body was loaded with cancer. I just feel if I would have spent a little more money and gave her more time she may have lived. Everyone I talk to tells me that it was her time to leave us but I just cannot forgive myself for letting her go. I have to pass her Vet everyday when I go to work and return home. I kid you not, there is not a day that goes by that I do not look at that building and think to myself “That’s where my little Haley died.”. Mark, Thank you for writing down your feelings and experiences with Sprite. I was sitting on my boat reading your book when a friend showed up and saw what I was reading. He smiled and asked which book of yours I was reading. I wasn’t aware at the time of what your occupation was until I got deeper into the book. My friend said “I listen to him all the time on the radio.” Kind of funny that my friend is a very political person and I am just a dog loving shop teacher. Seemed funny to me that he reads your political based books and I was just concerned with a dog book. I am happy to say that I often listen to you on WJR 760 in Detroit now. I must admit that I am listening to you more because of your love for animals than your political opinions. Thank you again for your love for animals and making me feel like I am not so wrong in how I feel. I have attached a picture of both of our Beagles. The top head is Katie (she is still with us) and Haley is the bottom head.

— Jason from Roseville, MI