Today my dog died(Sat 16th of Feb, 2008) I studied theology in Bible School so I can safely say I have no Scripture to support my notion that I will meet my dog again one day

Callie was an eleven year old Golden Lab. She was an enormous blessing to our family and never, not once, did she bear her teeth or even snap at anyone.

She would lie at my feet and rest her head on my foot. I would go to the bathroom and when I got out, she would be there. She had a very comfortable bed downstairs but most nights she slept outside our room.

About a year ago her back legs started to go. We put her on a certain drug and it really helped for a while. Then several months ago she developed a lump on her front right leg. After tests it was determined to be cancer.

The vet said that the only solution was to amputate, but given the condition of her back legs, it was not really viable. So the lump grew rapidly until it was the size of a watermelon.

She was never in any pain, and her never ending tail continued wagging as it always had. She now went into the front yard to go to the bathroom, as she could not make the stairs at the back. Eventually she needed help getting up the front two steps.

This last week she lost interest in food. Not usual for Callie at all. I knew the time was very near to make the call. I made the decision on Friday and we called the vet to set up the appointment.

On Friday evening I took her out into the front yard for the last time. As I stood on the porch, she hobbled over to the paper that was in the driveway. Did I mention that my dog was the smartest dog in the sub-division? The envy of all the other men as she would collect my paper? Read the rest of this entry »

For her last two nights I stayed up with her. Every so often she would begin a desperate but futile struggle to stand, he legs too tired to lift herself up. I would pick up her hind quarters with a towel slung under her belly, and allow whatever was fighting inside her to get out and on to the training pad spread on the floor. We could usually use the training pad twice before discarding it. We went through three packs of six.

Angel lay all night on the floor with one of our son’s t-shirts to keep her company. We both were able to sleep from 1 until 5am.

Our daughter and her husband came to spend last night with us. My wife left for Florida yesterday to be with her ailing father, and I expected to be here alone. Our daughter refused to go to the Vet with us, and had a good cry this morning. Her husband helped me carry the dog to the car, where Angel laid quietly in the back seat. Talked to my Dad last night and he told me about making the same trip with one of our family dogs (Hazel, a Cock-a-Poo (however it is you spell it)). Hazel somehow figured out what was going on and decided to go down fighting. Not so with Angel.

They set up a bed in the examining room where we placed Angel, now wrapped in various towels and plastic sheets. She lay there quietly, even dozing off as we waited for the Vet, a very nice lady, probably around 30 and very kind. She explained the procedure to me and administered the medication as Angel watched. She lay her head down between her paws with her eyes half closed, her nose over the edge of the bed, and was gone in a matter of seconds.

I stayed with her for a few minutes and cried a lot more than I thought I would. Took me about 10 minutes just to be able to walk out and say a quick good-bye to the staff (and I understood why they had me take care of the paperwork first – it was impossible now).

Thank God I had someone were waiting for me when I got home. We sat and talked for hours, sharing memories of Angel, discussing our son’s future in the Army and our daughter’s new job. We went to Bethlehem PA for lunch, where we stopped by a book store where I bought Rescuing Sprite.

Can’t recommend it too much – our experiences and feelings matched to a ‘T’. Thanks to Mark for putting it into words for all of us.

Picture is of Angel between her close friends Dylan and Freddie.

Dave from PA

I had a black lab name Ruby, I had her since i was a year old until i was about 9 years old. I loved this dog, she was very people and animal friendly, never barked, very smart. She always looked out for me and followed me around and protected me. when i was at cabin with my family at the lake, i was about 4 or 5, i would wander off of the property, Ruby would follow me along to make sure i got back to the cabin safety. I just kinda followed Ruby cuz i was soo little, i sometimes forget how to get back. I loved Ruby very much. We always had good times together. sadly she died when i was about 9 years old cuz of stomach problems.
today i have a mini dachshund, his name is Frankie. here is his link i made for my dog. http://www.dogster.com/dogs/2248
here is my vlog site i made, http://chillygurlz.wordpress.com/

Rita from NE

I had given my daughter a purebred Siberian husky for her 16th birthday—the only pet we ever purposed to get, all the others over the years have been strays or giveaways. We named her “Nika” and had her for several years. Unfortunately, she died quite suddenly, which left an “opening” in our family. About a week after Nika’s passing, my sister called to see if we were ready for another family member. Seemed her next-door neighbors’ 10-year-old Weimaraner—“Spike”—was in need of a home. Spike’s then family had kept this male purebred locked in a backyard dog run since he was a puppy, and more times than not they forgot to feed and water the poor animal. Over the years, my sister checked on Spike occasionally and that last time, when he raised his head at her calling, the look in his eyes broke her heart. She related later that she burst into tears because she could tell his spirit had been completely broken and she doubted that he would last much longer. Then she heard that we’d lost Nika, so after letting us have a week’s mourning period, she couldn’t stand it any longer and gave us a call. Ordinarily, we wouldn’t have been ready for a replacement after such a short period, but under the circumstances, we relented and allowed her to go speak to her neighbor, who said we could take him. So the next night my daughter and I drove to my sister’s and picked up Spike—whom we renamed Kaiser (a more fitting name, I thought, for a German!). Read the rest of this entry »

Just finished reading “Rescuing Sprite” and as I suspected, it was a “half a box of kleenex” type book. I had seen your interview before Christmas on Hannity and Colmes and asked my husband to get it for me for Christmas. Because of a loss of one of my favorite pets last April, I had not been able to read it until this week and I LOVE IT !!!!!!! What a touching love story, one I can really relate to as I love my pets the very same way….. totally. I loved my dog more than I love most humans. Buddy was a pound puppy who found his way into my car and heart 12 years ago. He was half boxer and half dalmation and was a love. Even though he dug and chewed his way through my home, yard and heart at first, once he grew up, we were fast friends. His death last April was similar to Sprite’s… the hour for the appointment approached and I faced it with dread. It was the most difficult decision I have had to make. His remains are stuffing a counted cross stitch pillow I have worked on for 10 years. Its made from a favorite photo of him on our bed. His companion and my husband’s dog, Casey, a dalmation also had to be put down a week after Buddy and she has a photo pillow too, hers is done comercially. They are on the couch in the guest room and I still hug them often. It takes a real dog-lover to understand all that we go through in this process. Thanks for making it so special for folks.

Nora from CA

Raya was my best friend and constant companion for 11 years. She was 14 years old when I had to put her to sleep last May. She was born on New Year’s Day 1993, and my mom raised her for her first three years. I brought her to live with me when she was three, and we stayed together until she passed. I miss her every single day.

After she died, I wrote some down some things that I remember about her. I guess it was somewhat cathartic, but I also didn’t want her to go unremembered. Here are some of my best memories of her.

Puppyhood:

When she was a puppy, she would stand on her hind legs against the gate to the kitchen whining and crying until I would pick her up like a baby, thumbs under her front legs and hands around her ribcage. If you picked her up and cradled her, she would grunt like a pig.

Once we fed her burrito meat. She had just eaten dinner and her belly was bulging. With the burrito meat inside her, her belly was so distended that she could barely sit upright. But she just kept on begging for more, rocking from side to side.

When we bathed her in the kitchen sink, she would whine and cry like we were torturing her. When she was too big for the sink, Mom bathed her outside. Mom went to a block party later and heard someone talking about the poor abused dog that was always crying. Since she bathed Raya fairly frequently, she knew exactly which dog the neighbor was talking about.

After she outgrew her first kennel, Raya’s bed was a pallet under the built-in desk in the kitchen. She soon discovered the joys of scraping the wallpaper off the wall with her claws. Mom had to re-wallpaper under the desk. Read the rest of this entry »