My Old English Bulldog “Daisy” has lived with us since her birth. She just had her 10th Birthday this January. Over the last 6 months we have battled with Mast Cell growth on her hind leg. She has endured 6 operations, and they keep popping up in a new place. Now she has more that popped up where she already had operations. Today, I took her to the Vet, and we had had to call it….”No more operations.” This is such a hard thing to decide. She has so much life left. She is alert. Mast Cells give off a lot of hystemine, and also cause acid in the stomach. To relieve these symptoms, we have her on benedryl, and pepsic ac.
Daisy loves “Her beddy,” which is really our bed that she lets us sleep in. The only consolation that we have, is that the Vet is going to come to the house to put her down in the spot she loves the most. This is really hard on both my wife and me, because it’s so hard to give your dog that you love so much a death sentence. Mark, I think I am going to have to buy your book. I pray every day that God help us get through this, and most of all that he will take Daisy into his loving arms. We thank God for giving us 10 joyous years with her. The hardest part now is deciding when will be the right time to go through with this.
Mike from TX
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I wanted to share the stories of my dogs and how much my wife and I have enjoyed them and also learned about life from them.
We got our first dog, Masey, a beautiful English Pointer, a little over 10 years ago. I don’t hunt and we had never thought about Pointers before seeing her , but we fell in love with Masey and also the breed. We knew that dogs bring so much love but unfortunately they live such short lives, so as she got older we were dreading the day she would be leaving us and we were very sad for quite a while.
We had already rescued Maggie, our Chocolate Lab from a bad situation since she was malnourished and kept isolated in a crate in a basement for 23 hours a day.While looking for another Pointer, we found a Pointer rescue group. Pointers from Oz is located nearby and has rescued and adopted over 400 of these wonderful dogs, so we found one named Dixie and brought her home with us.
She had been turned in to a shelter in Alabama 2 days prior to having 10 puppies showing signs of abuse and was scheduled to be euthanized before she was rescued by Pointers from Oz and brought back to Michigan. Now both our dogs are doing splendidly.
The picture below is showing Maggie and Dixie.
Rand from MI
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We had to put our cat to sleep in October. It was a sad day that brought tears to my eyes again today after reading about Sarah, a cat that belonged to Scott Adams, the author of Dilbert. Read the story.
http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/my_cat_again/
Claude from PA
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Our beloved lab left us in 2004 and our family still misses him. He was a great play mate for our sons, and a protector of the entire family.
Dudley once saved me by alerting me to an intruded while I was home alone. I had just returned from a shopping center that was being used as the hunting ground for a serial rapist that severely beat his victims. Our neighbor who worked in the homicide division was certain that the monster had followed me home.
I am often moved to tears when you talk about Sprite. It’s hard for some people to understand just how close one can become to a pet. They can actually protect us and teach us. Dudley jumped at an intruder without any thought for himself.
It was really hard telling our deployed sons about the loss of a brave dog. Maybe my sons learned gallantry from Dudley
Becky from ME
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Dear Mark:
My wife Nancy and I are listeners to your radio show via WBAP, Arlington/Dallas, Texas. We became especially attached when you brought Sprite to your radio audience, and more especially as Spritey’s issues with life became apparent to us. Then, with the passing of Sprite and the more revealing saga of his life via your book, Rescuing Sprite, the Smiths became much closer to the Levins.
Last year (2007) before Christmas, I bought 4 copies of Rescuing Sprite as Christmas gifts for each of our 3 children, all grown and gone, and one for us. Spritey’s story became especially significant, as it had become apparent our beloved Idgy, a kinda-sorta blond Lab+, was heading toward the final days of her life. I’m rereading parts of your book, as it relates to our saga. We also listened the other night as a caller told of his Golden/Shepherd mix, which is on the same path our Idgy took this past Fall and recent weeks.
On Monday, January 12th 2009, I had the agonizing task of making that ultimate decision for our beloved Idgy, The tears are flowing, hence the reason I could never attempt this message on your radio show. I’m an emotional mess!!! There are so many parallels between Idgy and Sprite, even their looks. The big difference is we had 13+ years with our Idgy, albeit she lived to 15+ years old. She too was a “walk-on.” Read the rest of this entry »
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Mark,
This is our Charlie. My parents and I loved her very much and always think about her. She was a beautiful Shiloh Shepherd with a very tenacious personality.
She is gone two years this May and the memories of her always bring a smile to our faces.
All my best to you and your family.
Anthony from NY
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