Dear Mark,

I wanted to thank you for writing Sprite’s story.

In 2003, my husband’s parents got divorced. It was an ugly battle, and their house was foreclosed on. Mmy husband and I were just dating at the time, he was still living at home, and out of necessity we moved in together. His dog of 13 years, Hank, also came to live with us.

As an avid dog lover, I absolutely adopted Hank as my little boy. He was a springer/aussie mix, dark brown, and was incredibly smart. He was definitely showing his age. About 6 months into us having him, he was having accidents on the floor, unable to hold it until we got home. The house we were renting had a doggie door and we taught him to use it – he picked it up in a flash.

Not long after we bought a home and again had a doggie door – Hank loved the freedom it gave him. He would sometimes just wander outside to sniff around, or wait for us to get home. He was my buddy – he got up early in the morning with me and just sat near me while I had my coffee. When my husband would tickle me, he would bark at him as f to say, ‘Hey, you leave my mom alone!’.

About a year after we moved into the new house, we noticed Hank’s back legs would give out on him and he had increased incontinence. Assuming arthritis was the culprit, we took him to the vet to get some meds. The vet had more serious news for us – Hank had neuromylepathy, a condition similar to MS in humans. Read the rest of this entry »

Dear Mark,

I just finished reading Rescuing Sprite loved it. At our house we have rescued many animals, dogs and cats that people have dropped off in the woods at our home. We live on 5 acres so they think they are dropping them off in woods. Right now we have 2 cats and a dog that is now at least 15 years old and I dread the day I have to make the same decision concerning my aging dog.

My sons are in the military and brought home their animals to our house before leaving for duty. Unfortunately that was too many and we spent 5 months trying to find homes for these animals. I picked up your book after placing their animals in homes and read it on the way home. I cried because of your book and also because of already missing my son’s animals after one short day in their new homes. I know they are in good homes, but in the short time they were here, I had grown attached. I plan to keep in touch with the wonderful familes who adopted these older animals while my sons are serving our country. We could all learn from animals unconditional love. Thanks for a great book.

Nancy from GA

Dear Mark
I just got done reading ur book. What a great job you did. I felt like Sprites and Pepsi’s Uncle and still do. I thought I had a more than average amount of machismo for a man of my age (50). I can’t tell you how many times I cried like a baby reading the story of Spritey. Just writing about it makes me tear up. I don’t have a dog at home. My house is too small and I’m on the go alot and that wouldn’t be fair to a dog. However at work we have two big dogs. About 7 years ago someone dumped 2 dogs off near our work. 1 male and 1 female. Of course we started feeding them. The female was mostly a border collie and the male is mostly German Shepard. They had a litter and from that litter we kept 1 pup that looked like mom. Now he’s a huge (98 lbs) boy.

About 2 months ago we couldn’t find momma dog. We looked all over and found her out in the woods. She had been bitten by a poisonous snake and died. I cried for days. Now the remaining 2 dogs, Duke the dad and Pinto the huge big ole baby won’t leave each others side. The unconditional love they show us is truly amazing. How anyone could “dump” any dog off is beyond me. I don’t have any pictures. I want to thank you for writing your book. I have an even deeper love for our dogs. Give Pepsi and Griiffen a hug and kiss for me please.

Mainard from TX

Dear Mark,

I have always been a true fan of yours and a true animal lover. When I heard about your book about Sprite I wanted to get it, but I put it off for a while because my dog Good Girl was getting really sick and I was afraid to read it for fear of my losing her becoming a reality.

Good Girl came into our lives almost by accident. We had another dog at home already, Sammy was her name, and My husband and I , every now and again, would look in the paper for black German Shepards. There was an add so we were just going to look and see what they had. When we went to the house, the condition that the dogs were in was appalling! There was only one puppy left and she was in a dirty crate on top of four other crates shivering. The woman let her out and she ran in the corner crying. I went over to pet her and the man, I guess the husband of the woman, walked into the room and the puppy began to cry more. She was obviously scared of this despicable person. My husband and I were so upset that we scooped her up, asked how much and left with her. She was about four months old and she was a wreak. It took us two years to get her to be not afraid of people. When we first got her we named her Brandi. She was always scared but everytime we said she was a good girl she would get all happy so the name stuck. Her and my other dog Sammy became friends and also were inseperable. They were my heart. They were my family.

When Sammy got sick Good Girl never ever left her side. She was so loyal and so loving. She took care of Sammy and me at the same time. She would watch over Sammy and anytime Sammy made a sound of pain she was always comforting her. Read the rest of this entry »

This is my best friend he is the coolest dog ive ever had… He is always by my side… WhenIi leave for work he wraps his lil paws round my ankles he doesnt want me to leave.. i never want him to leave me..it will crush me.

Mike from IL

I loved Rescuing Sprite–it emphasized that we need to take advantage of every day we have with our loved ones. Especially our beloved pets who are on this earth for a shorter time than we are.

I enjoyed Mark’s book so much that I started my own blog about our two dogs, Waffle and Jasper.

Mike from NV

http://wafflepup.blogspot.com/