Just read your book “Rescuing Sprite”..I am a kindred spirit..we lost our daughter..(18) in a car accident..and 2 years later our yorkie..”raisin” to cancer..after 6 weeks in clinic..3 surgury’s.I am now on my 3 yorkie..Zippy” 13 years old..with heart condition..I know that she is in the last chapter of her life..and it willo be so painful when she has to leave us..but I will always have a dog..because as you said “in the end we humans are the lucky ones” Thank you for putting in writing..what we dog lovers all feel about our beloved dogs.

Janet from MI

I have two rescue lab/shepherd mixes. One is a therapy dog because of his gentle temperament. I have also a rott/akita mix who was thrown out. He had a chip and when I called the lady who owned him, she said she had moved and didn’t want him any more!!….He has such a gentle spirit and gets along with what ever dog visits us. I wish I could take in more dogs, but I am retired and 3 are all I can handle, but I feel so very blessed with my rescues. Bobbie and Raider are 11 1/2 and Jack , the rott, is almost 3. I just finished reading the Sprite story and part of the reason I took Jack and didn’t find him another home was that I just couldn’t bear the thought of being alone if something happened to Bobbie and Raider. I am grieving the loss of my Schatze cat due to squamous cell carcinoma and it was very hard for me to finish the last few pages of this book about Sprite, but in my case also, I had to put him to sleep, he wasn’t ready but the cancer had made him unable to open his mouth to eat and keeping him alive when he would have starved to death was not an option.
I am still grieving him .
Animals touch our lives in a way other humans just cannot. Thanks so much for the blessing of Sprite . It touched my heart.

C. Kay from CA

Thank you so much for allowing me to read Sprite’s story. I started reading and could not stop. I don;t think that I have ever cried so much while reading a book. I too have lost two of my dogs. I foster with NBRAN, which is a brittany rescue group. My first adoption was my Millie. I have never had a realtionship with anyone like I did her. She had mammory gland cancer from not being spayed until late in life. I only had her three years. I will always regret not having her long enough. I have a special place in my heart for seniors. I have a 13 year old brittany that I was fostering and ended up adopting her. She is my little shadow. It always seems that the seniors love us a appreciate us the most. She sleeps on a pillow next to me ever night. I cherish every moment with her. Again thanks so much for sharing Sprite’s story. I am sure that my Millie and my Saabo are with your Sprite at the rainbow bridge playing and watching for us because one day we will meet them again. My thoughts are with you and your family.

Melissa from KY

I’m retired U.SNavy. A story that you might have heard of . 1968 I was a craftmaster on an LCU ,It’s a boat used for carriying.cargo too marine and army up river in Viet Nam It was a pretty big boat , so we had , UDT Boats that ran in fronts of us , Making sure the river . was as safe ,as they can check . Well one of the UDT boats . Had a Dod that had a second sense .any time there was ambush, she would start barking . well one time she staring barking .. The UDT ,came under heavy fire . EVERY one of The UDT was killed . except for the dog. The Star and Stripe Military News paper ,got a told of this artictle, and stated the Dog Lucky.. and kept a long history of Lucky history of ,how much she was able to detect the ememy! Until the day The UDT boat she was on came under heavy fire. I’t said not one foot of the boat didn’t have a hole in it the only one tha was killed was Lucky. The Star and Stripe Head Line , Lucky is Lucky Any more…It had every one that New of the story ….In Tears

Eugene from TN

My husband and myself love youe show. My husband is the one who told me about Rescuing Sprite. With us being such dog lovers it was a very warming and heart breaking story. we loved it. My husband and myself have three Dobermand and a Shepard/Chow mix. The Shepard/Chow(Brandi) is the oldest, she is 12 years ond. Our oldest Dobes(Duke and Autumn) are 5 years old. our youngest Dobes(Cheyenne) is 6 months old. Cheyenne is Dukes puppy. Istead of taking the stud fee we decided to bless ouselves with a grandpuppy. To our amazment Cheyenne and Brandi get along great, and we were worried about the age difference if they would get along. Mark keep up you good work. We love your show.

Donnett from MD

I wasn’t planning on getting a dog. We already had a sheltie at home. But, in helping my sister find a female black cocker, I ended up getting a litter mate to my sister’s new puppy. This poor little baby puppy had something wrong with one eye, it drooped terribly, and no one seemed to want her. I fell in love immediately.

Star had surgery to fix her eye, and, later, she seemed to have constant cystitis. But, I loved her more than I have ever loved another dog. Whenever I hear others talk about a certain dog in their life that they “bond” with. Star was my “soul dog.” We cuddled; she listened to me, and was the best behaved dog that I have ever known. She knew my every thought.

However, in August of 2006, I noticed that she had extreme difficulty walking in her hind legs. After having x-rays taken, the vet found that she had severe hip dysplasia at only 4 years of age! She was put on Rimadyl and a strict diet to lose a few extra pounds. She seemed fine until a Thursday in September of 2006.

She began vomiting and would not eat. I could get her to eat a few treats, but, she would soon throw those up also. Her liver just seemed to be shutting down and her eyes and gums were bright yellow in color. By the following Monday, we were racing across the state of Iowa to the Iowa State University Veterinary Hospital, one of the best in the country. There, she went through a battery of tests, and, tearfully, I had to leave her in their care with a kiss and a promise to be back. Well, by Wednesday, Star passed away during a liver biopsy. She was found to have had cocker hepatitis to which there is no known cure. I would not fulfill my promise to her to be back to get her.

This caused me to go into a depression much the same as you speak about in your book. It was horrible!!

About a month later, a vet in another town told my husband, a UPS delivery driver, that he had someone leave a dog in his entranceway the night before. She was a small, pregnant cocker. They were planning to give her puppies away, but, didn’t know what to do with the mother dog. This vet remembered hearing my husband tell him about losing Star, and, he wondered if we would want her. Read the rest of this entry »