Mark, I have just finished reading “Rescuing Sprite” and I am sad to be done with it. I started it while on vacation and did not want to put it down until I got to chapter 10. I knew what was coming so I put the book away. I have waited for the perfect day to finish it. No kids around for distractions and pleasent weather for sitting on my screened in deck to read. Now that I am done I wish your storey of Sprite didn’t have to end. I am such an animal lover! I have rescued dogs off the neighborhood roads and even interstates. I have always had dogs and some cats, sometimes like now I have had several dogs and cats at a time. I am a sucker for their unconditional love. I can’not even stand to see anything happen to an animal in a movie. I had to leave the room during the sad dog scene in “I Am Legend” with Will Smith. I just can’t stand it to see one suffer. My husband, who had not grown up with any family pets, has had to try and get used to all of the animals I have brought home. Some I found good homes for but most I kept. Our friends and family chuckle about my backyard which in some areas looks like a pet cemetary. (By the way my husband bought me your book for a birthday gift after hearing about it on Rush) But what I have done to help all the animals I have rescued or acquired is nothing compaired to what they have given to me!!! It’s hard for me to put in words the feelings I have from all the love and devotion they have all given me. My husband also said with a smile one day, that when it’s my time to go through the pearly gates of Heaven, that It will sound like a stampede when all of my passed away furry friends come to greet me! Well, thanks again Mark for your loving book about Sprite. It was absolutely wonderful to read about someone elses feelings about their pets that were like mine. I hope more people will support their local shelters and foster, adopt or even rescue animals when they can after reading your book. I hope writting the book helped to heal your soul a little. I will always remember Sprite like I knew him personally due to your detailed memories. Thanks again for sharing Sprite with all of us! Melinda from AL
Posted in Listener Stories | Comments Off on Our Furry Friends
Hello All,
I haven’t always been a dog lover. When I met my lovely wife, Venus, in 2002, she aquired a shih tzu named Shamoo. He brought so much joy into our lives. He was a sweet little guy. After we move back to Texas, we had to stay with my parents, and Shamoo had to live outside. Well, at night, we had to attach hs leash to a cable because he had a habit of getting out. He was able to run across the backyard and back up to the porch. Well one night my Dad moved one end of the cable so it was parrallel with the fece. Me and my wife were not aware of this, and it was close to the 4th of July. Shamoo was terrified by fireworks. Well, the next morning, I found that my little buddy of three years had hung himself on his 4th birthday. We were devistated. A couple of weeks later, we got another shih tzu, and named him Shimano. He is my little buddy now. He is 3 years old, and “loves his daddy!”
Around this time, my wife was a vet-tech. She had always told me that she wanted a French Bulldog. Lo and behold, they had a Frenchie come in with pyrometria(pardon the speling please). She only had a day or two left to live. She had been owned by a puppy mill, who bred her at too young of an age, and brought her in to be put down at only a year old. She was born in Germany, on Thanksgiving Day, from a well respected breeder. Me and my wife, Venus, decided to pay for the surgery to save her life. Now we have a healthy little three year old female Frenchie who likes to “grunt” and “lick you to death”. She is superb with kids! We named her Lillie. Shimano and Lillie are “joined at the hip”. We are joyed to have them, and really happy that we were there to save Lillie’s life and give her a home from a careless puppy mill. Mark, we are honored to be your friends on my space (Brandon and Venus). Not only do we honor you for your brilliant wisdom you share with us everyday, we honor you for the great service you do for the world of dogs. Thank you Mark…God Bless………..
Brandon Elder
Posted in Listener Stories | Comments Off on Shimano and Lillie
We have Joe, age 4 (there’s no dramatic rescue story to tell), who we adopted as a puppy, for our eldest dog, Jeff. Jeff was 8 when we adopted him, after his original family took him to their vet to have him killed because they were moving (to this day, their reasoning still infuriates me). Jeff lived 4 great years with us, and passed last year from cancer.
Annabelle was found at a gas station outside of Las Vegas by my husband on his drive back from L.A. on a cold October night nearly 5 years ago. The gas station employees said she’d been there for 2 weeks (she’d been nursing, but my husband didn’t find her babies, and I don’t want to think about what had happened to them), one ear torn, and alone and starving but nobody seemed to care. My husband called me to ask if there were any shelters between his location and Las Vegas, to which I replied, “None that are open this late. Just load her up in the car and bring her to the house.”
After being quarantined in our garage and then given a vet check-up, she was allowed into our home, where she and Joe quickly became inseparable. My husband had been explicit with his instructions: “You are to take the dog, and find her a home.” Uh, huh, sure honey.
We adore our dogs, and they complete our family,
which also includes 4 cats, and at any given time, between 2 and 4 foster kittens (I foster for a goup called Homeward Bound Cat Adoptions here in Vegas).
The love of animals is God’s greatest gift!
Donielle from NV
Posted in Listener Stories | Comments Off on Joe, Annabelle
My son worked with the husband of a dog breeder. She had a litter of Australian cattle dogs she planned to sell. When the vet did a check he found that one puppy was profoundly deaf. The breeder was going to put the puppy down for this “defect.” My son was shocked that they would kill a perfect little girl just for being deaf. (I adopted a deaf boy back in ’93.) He brought the little dog home. She is a remarkable pet. As a puppy, she used her outdoor time to “herd” all our cats into a certian tree. She can read and respond to signs and has been a member of the family for 3 years. BTW, my deaf son adopted a deaf cat. He is married now and lived in KY.
Zachi from FL
Posted in Listener Stories | Comments Off on A Loving Home
This is Aladdin. He’s spoiled rotten by his mom. Aladdin is also an elder, about 13 years of age and suffers from diabetes (Yes, he receives insulin shots – which he associates with meal time so the injections do not bother him.)
A well-traveled dog who has has criss-crossed the country twice, now lives with his owners in the retirement community of Leisure World in Laguna Woods in Southern California after spendin his first eight years in New Jersey.
He is loved by all and has provided unbound joy to our family’s life.
Richard from CA
Posted in Listener Stories | Comments Off on Aladdin
SOOOTY WAS a 7# golden Pom.A rescue he came to live with me when he was 2. He was killed by a car last week,probably chasing a cat. He loved to do that! I thought I would would die to.I did not know what to do. I got Marks book,and quickly read it.Thank you, Mark.It reallyhelped me. I’m going to Sacramento Friday to pick up Beemer, a 2 yr old Pom.Another rescue. I will never forget Snooty. God bless you, Mark
Dewey from CA
Posted in Listener Stories | Comments Off on Soooty
