Just finished your book and must say had a good cry through most of it!! The only people who can share your grief are other pet owners!! We lost our pet “Sparky” last valentines day. What a sad day in the Moreno Household. After a brief illness, we had to put hour ten year old shepard down. My husband and sons mourned for weeks, we consulted our freind the psychiatrist and realized our saddness was normal.

After a couple of weeks, I started looking for a new shepard, and that is how Max came into our lives. He is full of bad puppy behavior, but when we look into his eyes we see our sparky. Our three children are off at college, but our other three children (daisy, coby and Max)) keep us busy. I will share your book with other dog lovers at work. I have had Sparkys ashes in my family room for almost a year now, and because of your book, i know now where will sparky go. I too will buy a tree and place them as you have done. what a beautiful testament to Sprite. Pet owners love in a special way.

Marcia from MA

Dear Mark Levin,
I do not have a dog, but I have grown up with cats since I was born, and I love reading and being around dogs, too. I am 11 years old, and have read your book. I remember I was at school with tears down my cheeks. Your book is so touching, your dogs are wonderful. Reading this book, I really got to know your dogs, and you are a wonderful person. I know what I say does not mean much coming from “just a kid who’s never even had a dog”, but I was really touched by your book. I related to everything you said. I have a cat who’s very old with arthritis, and she can’t really jump up on things anymore and mostly stays in one spot. It’s hard to watch her, knowing that her day is probably coming soon, and you can’t really prepare completely for something like that. You can’t prepare emotions.

I also have another older cat who sneezes a lot, the vets think he may have heart problems. He’s also getting skinny and throws up his food. He’s not in pain, but it’s hard. He’s been with me since I was born. And the cat with arthritis, she came to live with us. She was the neighbor’s but is scared of their dogs(who I love playing with, they’re very nice), and she came to live with us. Read the rest of this entry »

Recently my boyfriend had to put his cat (of 12 years) Dribbles to sleep, after months of daily subQ fluids and endles trips to the vet, finally her little heart just gave out. She was quit the fighter at just over 5lbs. We both loved her dearly, and the day we took her to the vet to put her down was one of the worst days of my life. Clayton (my boyfriend) could not even get out of the truck he was in such a state. I took her in myself and held her in my arms as she fell asleep for the last time. This was heartbreaking, but brought about the story I am about to tell of another loved one (doggy) that will haunt me for the rest of my life…

When I was still at home with mom, living on our poor/small farm we had many dogs. Growing up dogs were dogs. We did not by any means mistreat them, as kids loved our animals and were lucky that we did have so much love, because, living out in the boonies meant that many strays were dropped off near out home. We never had to go out looking for animals, they came to us! We never had more than two or three at a time, dog and cats, but loved each one. They ate table scrapes mostly. (This was a time when dinner was cooked every night and there was always plently of biscuits and gravy, or beans and potatoes for a dogs tummy! We did have bags of dry dog food that we would mix w the gravy with there wasnt enough bread to fill in. We were poor as far as having material things. We wore hand me downs from cousins, ect, and rarely got new clothes. But Rich we were with room to roam the hills and creeks (about 100 acres) and this will always be the times I loved most about my life. Read the rest of this entry »

Always an animal person but living in apartments, I keep a kitty or two from alocal shelter. A barking dog would be just too hard for nieghbor relations,

One stormy night changed all that when at a job, in ran a muddy dog with no ID.(In an ID requiried entry-point I might add…)

Long story short, no one claimed her. It’s been over a year, and guess who only barks a little….

Someone from that job read your book and sent me a copy. I’ll tuck it away for when I need to read it again someday.

For now, it’s time for nightly fetch …

Kathy from PA

I wanted to Thank
You for writing such a wonderful book. My boyfriend and I adopted our son Ben from our local Humane Society 2 years ago. He is a Corgi mix.
My parents had to put down my dog Sugar Baby that I had since I was in 4th grade. I could not bear the thought of going home and her not being there it broke my heart. We had her for 14 years. I had been begging for a puppy and he thought that it would be easier going home if I had a new puppy to keep my mind off of Sugar. So the next day I got Benjamin Dale.
I think that when you rescue a dog they know that and thank you everyday for it. Ben is so spoiled and truly thinks that he is part Corgi part human. While reading your book I could not help to think about what it will be like when it is time to make the decision of letting him go. It was such a wonderful book and I cried the whole time. I could not put it down and read it all in one day. I still get choked up when I talk about your story and Sprite, or when Ben is outside and gets lost in the breeze like Sprite did.
Ben is a huge part of our lives. He goes to work with Ryan everyday and spends his time listening to Mark Levin and Sean Hannity on XM Radio. Thank You for your wonderful book and for you amazing Talk Show.

Ashley from MO

Cesar was a lovable, shaggy mongrel, part Collie, part Shepard, and part something else that was special — he had a soul.

The boaters, of the family marina, fed and played with him. And he never jumped on kids, knowing that he might scratch or tumble them.

Cesar lived a good life, but in his last year he was deteriorating rapidly. But I didn’t want to put him away, if possible. As long as he didn’t suffer. On his final day I gave him my T-Bone steak; alas he just sniffed it and nibbled a bit, which made me fully aware this might be good-bye.

The next morning we couldn’t find him. We realized, during the previous night, he quietly walked off into the bush, the forest around the property, and peacefully lay down so as not to bother anyone.

My Ojibway-Elder friend, Duke Redbird, of CITY TV said this was a natural way.

Edmund from Ontario