I used to be a large dog person till I saw LUCY and adopted her. She weighs in at 15 Lb but she runs with the big dogs. She loves my 98 Lb female lab who plays prety rough with her. She puts my Chow Lab. mix in his place to.

Rick from AL

We had a female Doxie named Auggie. About 2 years ago we decided that is might be a good idea to get here a friend. My husband really didn’t want to but I found a beautiful 6 week old female Doxie that howled like she was Janis Joplin…lol. My husband doesn’t believe on letting pets sleep with you. Well, the first night with this new puppy we thought we would put her with Auggie so she wouldn’t be lonely. But the pup still howled, I can sleep through anything and didn’t notice that it had gotten quiet. Well the next morning I got up early to let both dogs out. The pup wasn’t there. I went crazy looking for her trying not to wake my husband. When I decided to wake him up cause the pup is gone, he tells me no she is not, and she wasn’t she was sleeping with him the whole night. That became his dog and he named her Gypsy. That pup followed everywhere. It was a love story that was beautiful. But three weeks later she had a siezure that took her life. I have never seen a man so hurt and lost. But it gave me a new respect for my husband and his feelings. So all those guys out there that act like they are tough are in reality loving kind people. God Bless them all, the guys and the little pups that come into thier lives.

Jenny from WI

My wife and I know that God blessed us with Chanel (the little princess). Chanel just past away with lymphoma cancer. I don’t want to tell you how she died I want to tell how she lived. Chanel was an abandoned Collie/Shepard mix about six months old running around the complex where my wife owns a shop. Fafar needed to go to the bank which was in the same complex so she walked as she was walking she noticed a scruffy looking dog and said something kind. She went into the bank and finished her business and came out of the bank twenty minutes later guess who was waiting? As Fafar was walking back to the shop the little scruffy dog followed her all the way back to the shop. Fafar got some water and something to eat to feed the little beggar she looked for a collar and found none. She looked closely at the bag of bones with the pads worn off her paws to the point they were raw. Fafar called the SPCA they told her that they would not pick the dog up. This is where I came into the picture; Fafar called me and asked me what to do? I did not have a clue what I was just about to get into she asked me to come to the shop. When I showed up I saw this poor pathetic bag of bones and knew that she was starved and more than likely was on the streets for weeks. I called the SPCA I was mad as hell, they told me that if they picked up the dog that they would only put it to sleep. I hung up on the——- . Fafar looked at me, now what to we do. This was my chance and I took it; you see Fafar resisted to own a dog for years because dogs shed all over the place, has fleas and makes messes all over the place. I was still so mad at the SPCA I said if they don’t show up she goes home with us and stays. Reluctantly Fafar gave in but with conditions, the dog had to stay outside, it would never be allowed in the house, I had to take care of it and feed it. Within three days Fafar fell in love with this scruffy little dog, as a matter of fact she was sleeping in our bed, needless to say we both fell head over heels for this little abandoned dog. We sat on the floor for hours trying to come up with a name and finally settled on the name Chanel we didn’t realize at the time that her name would fit her personality perfectly. As the days and weeks went by a special bond between all three of us formed. We became an inseparable threesome. Chanel was the smartest dog I ever knew, she learned so quick it was amazing within weeks she was working with hand signals. Chanel was also the kindest most gentle sole one could ever meet, she had a uniqueness about her she is a princess to anyone who ever met her. Her love was never ending and you could always see it in her eyes and the way she acted. For every ounce of love she received she gave twice as much back. I have never seen an animal give love to two people equally with the exception of our Chanel. As an example if we were both at home and I was upstairs and Fafar was down stairs Chanel would split the difference and lay down on the landing half way up stairs. There were a million little things that she did that made everyday worth looking forward too. Every day of her life we would go on walks twice a day. We moved close to a lagoon and I started to let her off her leash to run freely and for years she had her own time and we played hide and seek so for her going for walks was always a happy time, I even think she learned how to spell “walk” because even if she was in our backyard and you spoke the word walk she was there and ready to go. Fafar and I began to spell the word W A L K, low and behold Chanel picked up on it and were on our way for the walk. If one of us was sick Chanel would stay with the sick person, to this day I don’t know if we were her mom and dad or she thought we were her children. Chanel was always the little princess because she always handled everything with grace, elegance, dignity, and honor. We miss her but she will always remain in our hearts and we will remember her all the days of our lives as the blessing of the Little Princess.

John Paul from CA

Mark, it has taken me until March of 2008 to write about my best friend. Forrest Langford- born an unnamed Black Lab puppy on September 21, 1993, came into my life under circumstances felt by many True Dog Lovers. I was a student at Auburn University in my first Junior year and had decided that I needed to have a dog. I had a loving an loyal best friend that I had left at home with my parents when I took off to school. His name was General – a mix ( as best we can guess ) of a Lab and a Basset Hound. There was never a more loyal and loving addition to our family than General. However, being away at college, I only got to see him on the occasional weekend and trip home for holidays. To tell the story of General is not the purpose of this note- I can leave that up to my father to tell. But because I rarely saw him, I decided I had to have my own at school. And much like any other college student at a southern university, I had to have a black lab. I found a new litter in Montgomery, AL in the summer of 1993, and from that litter I picked out the runt of the group and named him Blue. I know funny to name a Black Lab, Blue- that’s an even longer story. To save time and tears, Blue passed away on or about November 10 of 1993. The best we were able to guess was from poisoning. I came home one night from a party and found him dead in my room. The pain, the guilt, the anger was too much for me. I’m not sure, but I think I punched a hole in the wall. A week later- my parents showed up at my apartment with a new Black Lab puppy. At first, I was angry with them, because I didn’t think it was right. It was too early. I was not ready. But this beautiful puppy, with a hilarious drooling problem, quickly stole my heart and my soul. I think because of the circumstances that he came into my life, that I became very cautious and protective of him… and sometimes unwilling to even let him out of my sight. I guess it was the same way 14 years later. I named my new friend Forrest. Not in honor of the movie character, but in honor of the Confederate General. For 14 years Forrest and I were truly inseparable…except for a time when I lived in an apartment that wouldn’t allow pets- so he stayed with my parents for an extended period. This was a blessing in disguise for my parents who were suffering through a painful end to General’s life. Forrest began to have seizures at the age of 5. Frightening, horrible, painful seizures that apparently came and went with no explainable cause. For years we worked through 3 different vets and finally found a cocktail of medicines that would hem back the seizures. Read the rest of this entry »

One Saturday morning, a lady bought a skinny little Dachshund to our door, and asked if she belonged to us. She’d apparently been left on a busy street, and nearly got hit. I told her that my dogs were all in the back yard. She said that she’d take her to the next three houses, and if nobody claimed her, she’d take her to a nearby vet, and who knows what would’ve happened. I caught up to her before she reached the next door, and told her we’d take her. This poor little girl had bowed legs and was skin and bones. We took her to the vet and she had to have several bad teeth pulled, but she blessed us with two more years of her sweet presence. She passed on one night in our bed. I still cry when I think of our precious little girl, and now, we’ve rescued, and adopted seven more.
That’s why I sent Mark the blanket when I heard the story about his precious Sprite. I know how it hurts to lose a “family” member. Especially the four legged ones.
Thank you for Rescuing Sprite.
Janet from TX

Mark,
I received your book as a gift from my son & new daughter in-law this past
Christmas. I finally had a chance, while on vacation, to read it. It was very
touching and heart warming and it brought back many memories of my dogs..
In my 26 years of marriage we have had two dogs one an Irish Setter, Cigi, who
after a long life of 14 ½ years we had to put down after many months of praying
that she would just some day not wake up. It tore me apart and swore I would not get another dog. I was right we did not and then a little more than a year later a stray Gordon Setter showed up in the middle of our cold MN winter outside hunting birds in our shrubs out front and running through our neighborhood. I often took strays in because
we lived so close to a highway I worried they may wonder to close and get hit. I took him in and called the local authorities to report the dog as being found & left my name and number along with calling local stores incase anyone was looking for him. It took almost a full week before hearing from (Micks) the dogs family but they showed up, the woman was not thrilled when picking him up she was pregnant and had a little one in her
hand and said Mick was her husbands dog and said that the dog was way too much
work. I then mentioned that if they were interested in giving him up we (my son, daughter, and husband) would be interested in taking him. Of course a week later
they were on our door step. He was ours. It took weeks of training, love, anti-anxiety
medication and lots patience but he became a very big part of our family. We were
the third owners of Mick in his year and a half. No one ever took the time to really
give him the attention he needed. We only had him another seven and a half years
when he suddenly was diagnosed with a heart murmur. Three years ago he died of
what seems to be heart failure at the young age of 8 ½ yrs. I too feel very responsible,
my father was dying from lung cancer at the time and we had just placed him in a
Hospice Home, I felt I was so busy with caring for my father I was ignoring Mick. Read the rest of this entry »