Mark, My Black Lab Brutus helped me get through 2 terrible relationships with difficult women. I can’teem to find an email address to send to you so I will use this site. Politically I think I am your clone. But as for my dog Brutus and I were only apart for 10 days in his 9 year life. He aquired cancer in his pallet and his throat finally closed so he could not eat. The 30 minute wait for the vet to come and relieve him of his suffuering was torture. Please send me an email so I can correspond with you about politics Thanks for your Patriotism…

Gregory from KS

I just finished reading your book and just had to write to you and let you know how sorry I am for your loss of Sprite. I do know what you are going through as we (my family) had to put our beloved Basset mix, Patches, down Nov. 7th, 2006.

In June of ’94 I was recently discharged from the Army. Just before I left the base a friend came up to me and asked if I would stop by someone’s house off base and pick out a puppy and take it when I leave. He was afaid the puppies were being abused and didn’t want the pups to suffer. I told him I would take a look and see but no promises because I had know idea where I was going and whether or not I would be able to have a dog. He said to take a pup and then give it away to a family that you can trust. I said sure. I stopped by the house on my way out and saw underneath the porch a cardboard box that had the pups and asked the person sitting there if they were in fact free. She nodded yes and I took a look and of the three pups that were left one immediately caught my attention. I knew from that moment on there was no way I was going to give her away. As I was driving down the highway there was little or no room in my car for her to sit as I had everything I owned in my car. Not really knowing where I was going or even doing she sat on top of a pile of clothes in the front seat. I stopped every couple of hours and took a break from driving and let her do her duty. I never once had to put a leash on her as she stayed by my side the whole time and never even tried to go farther than the sound of a snapping finger could travel. I ended up arriving in Wisconsin where I had a pen-pal while I was in the service. I just showed up at around 2 in the morning and she offered me and my knew friend a couch to sleep on. Love for this woman grew and I eventually married her. We have two children Richard and Rachel and we have been married 13 years. Denise, my wife, quickly fell in love with Patches. Our children grew up with Patches in their life. She lived to be 13 yrs old and it was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life. Late in her life she started developing health issues as any dog her age would. She was having a hard time getting around but still doing good. Then we noticed that she wasn’t eating and losing a lot of weight. We took her to the vet and he ran a slew of test and blood work and told us that her kidneys were failing. I asked the vet how much time we had left with her and he said that it could be as little as a couple of weeks or as long as a year before her health would decline enough to make a difficult decision. I even asked the vet when will we know that her kidneys had failed completley and it was time to say good-bye. Read the rest of this entry »

I just finished reading Rescuing Sprite what a wonderful story. I too adopted a wonderful companion from the Danville PA SPCA. He has since passed away he was my best friend, loyal companion most well behaved dog a person could ask for. He loved to be cuddled he slept tight against me everynite. I know what you are going thru I will never forget the nite we came home from work and found him. He had passed away that was 2 1/2 yrs ago and I still miss him and think about him everyday.

Smokey was my baby everyone loved him. We also have adopted a beagle Cosmo who we have chased all over the neighborhood and up the mountain he has given us lots of excercise. Then like 2 yrs ago we got another dog he’s Bernese Mtn/Golden rtvr mix he is a big baby who now decided he loves to chase cars not a good thing we are trying to break him of that but we have our hands full. I am a big time Eagles fan so we named him McNabb.

can’t help but wondering though if this was just too much for Smokey sometimes I feel guilty like if it wasn’t for getting McNabb that Smokey would still be here. Unlike how you say Pepsi and Sprite were like brothers this was not the case with Smoke and McNabb. I keep telling myself it was Smokey’s time I am thankful that I did not have to make that difficult decision of having to decide that. This is to all of the Sprite’s and Smokey’s out there you have a special place in our hearts.

Tonya from PA

An older, tired-looking dog wandered into my yard. I could tell from his collar and well-fed belly that he had a home and was well taken care of.

He calmly came over to me, I gave him a few pats on his head; he then followed me into my house, slowly walked down the hall, curled up in the corner and fell asleep

An hour later, he went to the door, and I let him out.

The next day he was back, greeted me in my yard, walked inside and resumed his spot in the hall and again slept for about an hour. This continued off and on for several weeks.

Curious I pinned a note to his collar: ‘I would like to find out who the owner of this wonderful sweet dog is and ask if you are aware that almost every afternoon your dog comes to my house for a nap?’

The next day he arrived for his nap, with a different note pinned to his collar:
‘He lives in a home with 6 children, 2 under the age of 3 – he’s trying to catch up on his sleep. Can I come with him tomorrow?

Marianna from FL

I had never been a dog owner or even been around dogs until two years ago, when a North American Staffordshire Terrier was brought into my life – 90-pound Shamrock, who had been treated like an adult all his life and had enjoyed all the luxuries the adults did. Then my son decided he wanted a dog because he had not had one whle growing up, so he got a Border Collie – Brinkley. . Then I had to rescue a dog from an abandoned neighbor’s house – a puppy – part Chow and maybe part Pit (not sure.) He had been abandoned i and left n the freezing temperature outside to die, so he had to come to my house! Now the count has risen to three dogs! Brinkley and Behr (the part-Chow) were puppies about the same age and started off in the house, but quickly were moved outside. My house was not a chew toy or a poopinjg ground! So now, a year later, I have two dogs outside and one inside. Unfortunately, my son has gotten “too busy” to take a lot of time with Brinkley. I feel he is being cheated out of a great family to love and play with him. He loves to catch a tennis ball and play frisbee! Behr just loves to sit and watch! And me…I’m left to care for three dogs and I am very under-educated about dogs.. and about half scared of the Chow. I don’t know why I felt compelled to write this here, but it seemed a good place to sound off. I thought maybe reading your blog about dogs will help me know what to do with this bunch! I hope to have photos to post soon. Thanks for listening!

Phyllis from MS