We have a dog named Kurt. He has given us a life of happiness and joy. He once ‘ walked himself to the vet the day before his appointment. He knew who takes care and provides him doesn`t he. He slip out of my mothers sight and walked down this busiest street at rush hour made it passed the cross streets and down to the vet no lie. Very funny story. He had no collar with license because I took it off of him the night before he was having neck problems.

Thank god the Vet did know who he was and called us. We make sure he has his license on and made up a ID tag with name and number.

I dread the day he has to go to doggy heaven. Your book was a god send and you are a wonderful person. Yours Truly,

Linda and our loved K-9 Kurt and family from NJ

I just got done reading your book and cried my eyes out.
My husband and I adopted a 7 year old female Beagle from the Humane Society on September 30, 2007. I have been a dog lover all my life, but my husband..not so much. After six years of marriage I finally convinced him to get a dog. The one we picked out we named Violet. She had been abandoned and left at the shelter for 3 weeks. After we got her home she slept a lot but I just took that to her being a little bit older. She had never been spayed so I made an appointment on October 15 to get her spayed. The vet called once she was under anasthethia to let me know that she had found a tumor in her intestines and could not get to her uterus to spay her unless this tumor was removed. Of course this would make the cost of the surgery go up to $2,400 with all the testing that needed to be done, etc. I was torn because I didn’t want to not get her spayed but I also didn’t have that kind of money either. I did not have time to call my husband so I took a deep breath and told the vet to go ahead and remove the tumor and I would worry about how I was going to pay for it later.

The vet called back a few hours later and said they had to remove over 4″ of her intestines to get all of the tumor and had to reattach some of her intestines and were keeping her overnight. I was worried, but the vet had high hopes that everything would be fine. When we picked her up the next night the vet informed me that there was a risk that the sutures in the intestines would not hold and might start to leak. Of course I was scared but just happy to have our little Violet home. By Wednesday night, Violet had not been keeping food down, which was one of the signs of intestinal leakage, so I called the vet (luckily they are an emergency animal hospital and open 24 hours) and they told me to bring her in right away. The vet on duty wanted to start with an x-ray of her stomach to see if they could see if the intestines were holding. When the vet came back in, she had a strange look in her face. She said ” I think I know what’s wrong…there is an unborn puppy in her belly.” My jaw about dropped to the floor. I really thought she was joking. I didn’t understand how the vets that operated on her just 2 days before had missed an unborn animal fetus. Read the rest of this entry »

“Our daughter-in-law, Lauren, has a tiny little toy shih tzu dog named Skittles. My wife fell in love with the dog and started asking me to get her one “like Skittles.” Because we have had a big eighty-pound Labrador retriever, Jet, for eight years, the thought of bringing a tiny dog into the house to share space with a well-established “only child” of a dog seemed like a bad idea.

Months of her dropping hints and outright pleading finally took their toll. For Christmas 2005 I gave Janet her own little toy shih tzu, who at 7 weeks old weighed only a pound and a half. She had already told me that if she got a puppy she would name him Sonic because of her affinity for the Sonic drive-in restaurants where she is a regular customer, alternating between cherry limeades and vanilla root beer. I presented Sonic at our staff Christmas party, and brought the little puppy to her in a forty-four-ounce Sonic drink cup. He fit quite comfortably!

The next few months were quite interesting as we watched our well-trained, well-bred, and well-behaved Lab try to figure out what to do with this tiny little creature that he surely thought must have been something other than a dog. Whatever indifference Jet may have shown the little interloper, it didn’t deter Sonic one bit.

From day one Sonic acted as if he, too, were a big dog and whatever Jet did, Sonic tried to do also. Sometimes Sonic would even challenge Jet for a bowl of food or a toy. Jet, being ever the typical, docile, easy-to-please Lab, would often simply walk away rather than engage in a fight with a dog a fraction of the size of the ducks he retreived during hunting season.
As I watched the dogs learn to get along and establish their own space, I was reminded of a truth I had heard years before: “It is not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog that determines the outcome.”
A quality absolutely necessary for leaders to lead and ultimately to win is to display perseverance. The only certain way to lose is to quit before the end of the game. One of the most inspirational speeches I ever heard was given by Clebe McLary, a Marine who had been severely wounded in Vietnam, losing both legs, one arm, and his sight in one eye. It was a miracle enough that he was alive, but a greater miracle was his unquenchable spirit and optimism. I will never forget one statement he made: ‘I have never lost at anything. Sometimes the game ended before I finished playing, but I never lost at anything.’ ”
-taken from FROM HOPE TO HIGHER GROUND, by Gov. Mike Huckabee (p.184-185, Center Street, 2007)..

Mark, you’re the best…I know this probably doesn’t really fit the format and won’t get posted….just thought I’d share the story…..

Thanks,
Boyne from TX

On cool May afternoon I went to our local Humane Society. I was walking down the row of barking dogs, and there she sat. She was very quiet, and when I approached she nuzzled up to the fence.I was in love. Here was this Pittbull that obviously had been on the street. I took her for a walk, she had kennel cough and some old scars around her head. She was so very gentle, I knew I had to take her home. She gave me such understanding and affection. Such devotion from a dog that was due to be put to sleep.

To this day I remember her attempting to jump on my bed. It would take her several attempts before she would succeed. She would rest her head on me, always needing to be close. I tried several names, none worked. One day, as she was snorting like a pig and I called her Piggy. Of course this was the name she chose. Piggy was with me for 9 years and passed away on March 17th 2000, Patty’s day. Previously in the week, while we were in the yard she laid down under a huge apple tree. This was the spot were she was buried with her favorite toys, her blanket and a letter I wrote her thanking her for loving me, protecting me and being my family. She hung on to the very end for me, her body in so much pain she had cancer. Her devotion never ceased, it was both beautiful and tragic when I held her at the end. Piggy will be in my heart forever and I am grateful to her teaching me how to truly love.

Bren from PA

Not sure where to begin… Lady is her name..a rescue from the humane society..sweet as can be…black lab..mix…the kindest dog i’ve ever seen..not sure of exact age but got her when she was about 3…so now vet is guessing..12. Mark i had just finished your book on the 4th of jan…what an excellent book…you are a carbon copy of my family and how much we love and value our dogs…and our family..your book put a lot in perspective for me..thankyou from the bottom of my heart..for writing this wonderful story and sharing your grief with us..I’ve never been without a dog..and prob. never will..so i have gone through the grief of losing pets way too many times…but the years of happiness they give me is beyond words.

This brings me back to my Lady…i was hugging her the other nite (mind u i do this quite often,, but even more since reading your book).and felt a horrible lump in lady’s leg…being in the medical field i feared the worst…but hoped it was only a sore that had gotten infected…went to work next day..while my husband took Lady to the vet…well i got the dreaded call while in a meeting…it was a tumor…well ok lets get it taken off…not that easy…her chest inside was x-rayed only to find numerous more tumors…inoperable…i found this out last nite…so i slept with her by my side all night…now this morning she looks frail and her breathing is a bit labored..although she is trying to keep up with Buster our 3 yr. old dog..But even Buster senses her tiredness.. he has been licking her and sitting by her more often today…so endearing how they communicate their love…the vet gives her about 2 wks…i notice her pacing more and more…but she still looks so beautiful. Read the rest of this entry »

Mark:

I just finished reading your book “Rescuing Sprite”. It took me so long because I had to put it down. I could not see for crying. I have been through this so many times. But I love dogs and like my husband, Gary, says “When one door closes another opens”. There are so many dogs out there that need our love.

Gary and I married in 1979. Six months after our wedding Gary was talking about getting a dog. He wanted me to just look at some samoyed puppies for sale in the paper. So we went to “just look”. After checking out the male puppies, Gary said he like the middle one. I said, “You have the money in your pocket, don’t you”. That is when Bear came into our lives.

Bear lived for 15 years. He was a great dog. We took him to the vet for a simple procedure. He came through it with flying colors. But then we lost him. Dr. Mikeska was checking on him, Bear looked up at him with his toy in his mouth, and fell over dead. He had a heart attack. Gary and I weren’t there for him but someone who also cared for him was. That is all we could ask. It would not be as easy on us with our others.

Bear’s mate, Bjelkier, was my dog. She whelped a nice litter of puppies. We had moved from California to East Texas – Spurger – to live next to and care for my husband’s elderly aunt and uncle. Aunt Julia and I sat on the floor one summer day delivering puppies. Bjelkier did not know what to do. So we did not let her have another litter. She had more important things to do. Chasing squirrels and watching horses and cows was her specialty. She was one month short of nine years when we lost her. She had a heart valve problem and died in my arms on April 7. It was tragic for Bear as well as us. He would sit on her grave until my employer, a CPA in Jasper, told me to bring him in that weekend while we did taxes. That helped a lot.

We also had two other samoyeds, Loko and Glacier. Loko was Bear’s daughter from another samoyed and Glacier was her puppy. Glacier was the only boy in the litter and he was special. I lost the two of them within two weeks of each other from pancretitus. And that was just three months before Bear passed away in 1994. Read the rest of this entry »