Mark,
Just cried through the last half of your book, Rescuing Sprite. What a wonderful tribute to you best friend. I have probably spent the last Christmas with my 14 year old Duchess so your book really touched me. As she stands here beside me as I type this I know I am not prepared in any way to let her go. I guess all of us who have loved and lost a dog are never really prepared for the sorrow after their passing. Glad you shared Sprite’s life with us.

Ann from PA

My Mom’s New Best Friend(s)

I live in Las Vegas, and my mother lives 2500 miles from me. A few years back, Mom lost her best friend, a golden retriever named, Bob. She did not put him down, but lay down by his side for a few days at home, until he passed away. I don’t think my mother ate or drank very much during this time, and she took Bob’s death extremely hard. We were worried about her, because she was extremely depressed over the loss, as you were. He really was her best friend. Some thought she was overreacting, but because I lost my son to Leukemia at age 11, I understand the depth of her grief, because that is exactly what she was experiencing. It takes time before the pain lessens, but it never completely leaves. My son died in 1991, and would be a grown man of 27 now, had he lived. I think of him every day, and do not enjoy the Thanksgiving and Christmas season too much.

After a bit of time had passed, she visited a shelter, and encountered Charlie, another golden retriever. Instantly, she knew that Charlie would be going home with her. Charlie was about two years old, and had spent much of his life alone, cooped up in a small apartment. As a result, he had some temperament issues, including anxiety, and he would go berserk whenever another dog was encountered during walks. My mother is a tiny woman, and Charlie is a big, excitable dog. For a long time, she would anticipate trouble, and go to the other side of the street, or head back in the opposite direction whenever she saw another dog.

My mother lives in a small house in Harvey Cedars, NJ, on the seashore, year-round. So Charlie enjoys twice-daily walks, even on the beach (during the off-season). With her love and patience, Charlie has become a calmer, more sociable dog. He has even made other canine friends. With Charlie around, I don’t worry as much about my mom as I once did.

Another reason I don’t have to worry so much about Mom is her friend, Wendy Mae Chambers. I know that my own name is Wendy, and I don’t want to confuse things. I will refer to Mom’s friend as “Wendy Mae.”

Wendy Mae is an extremely talented musician, and both composes and performs music for TOY PIANO. Apparently, Wendy Mae also has another talent: painting.

Each Christmas, Wendy Mae paints a portrait from a photograph, in the form of an “icon” complete with halo, and has it printed on her annual Christmas Card!

This Christmas, the icons are none other than Mom and Charley! Wendy Mae was kind enough to e-mail me the images I’ve attached: the photo of Mom and Charley, and a photo of her yearly Christmas painting. Mom and Charley look nice with their halos, don’t you think?

Wendy Mae does more for Mom than she realizes. She is much younger; young enough to be her daughter. All summer they swam in the ocean every day together. They traipse around to art museums, Broadway shows, and the like.

I feel so happy that Mom is not just sitting home after she retired, and is enjoying life, thanks to Charley and Wendy Mae.

Wendy from NV

I am reading “Rescuing Sprite” and I can’t control my emotions. I have had dogs all my life. We now have two cockers and we put our Molly down after 17 1/2 years Sept 8th. My husband built a casket for her, chalked and painted it and she is in our back yard under a bird feeder. She had one eye, the other one wasn’t good either, an enlarged heart and arthritis. But oh what a dog. She traveled with us to Florida about 15 times, to Cape Cod, Colorado, and everywhere else we went she went.

We rescued our Alfie from Ilcockerrescue . He had been walking the streets of Chicago and was put in a kill facility near the Ind. state line. Thank goodness they called ilcockerrescue. We have had him about 4 1/2 yrs now and he is about 9. Then my son-in-law sent a picture of a buff cocker 1 11/2 years ago and said that the lady was taking her to the Indianapolis Humane Society. Well, I have seen pictures of empty cages there, they don’t give the dogs a chance especially one that was “turned in”. Well we have our lovely and energetic Trena and she is a joy. Totally different from Alfie but man do we love our dogs. In the 1970’s I went to our local shelter and they told me that this German Shepard was going to be put down the next day. Well, I brought her home and we had her for about four years. She had a terrible skin problem that caused her to itch constantely. No vet could figure out what it was. After taking to have her put down 4 times the fourth time I finally did. I regret it to this day and that was so many years ago. I feel that if I had known about feeding my dogs a raw, homemade diet I may have been able to cure her of this skin problem.

But what did we know about feeding dogs at that time. nothing… just feed them dog food. I now am an advocate for a BARF diet which is Bones and Raw food. I urge you to go to ilcockerrescue.org and check on the BARF diet. I have always felt awful that my previous dogs ate the same old thing day after day. Now I feed them REAL food. They love their squash, inc. the skin, raw chicken, etc. All the information is in the cocker website. I also keep some healthy dog food on hand with no byproducts in them. I am so sorry for your loss and of having Sprite for such a short time. I am sharing your grief as I sit here at my computer in tears and all choked up. I will be finishing your book today and am anxious to learn about Griffen. A fellow dog lover….

Rita from WI

Mark, thank you so much for your book,”Rescuing Sprite”.My wife and I are members of Foothills Golden Retriever Rescue in Greenville,S.C. and have been blessed having owned rescued goldens.2007 has been a hard year for us.In June , Samson 14 1/2 years old died and on 12/24/07 Missy 16 years old was put to sleep.I had picked out your book for a Christmas present for my wife not knowing Missy would die Christmas Eve.

Samson came to us when he was 10 years old,he was an owner release and was one gentle soul.Missy had been tied in a basement for 12 years and came to us when she was 14.Missy was a pleasure and a very unique dog.In the picture Missy (with garland around her neck) is in front of the sleigh and Samson wearig a cap is sitting in the sleigh.
Yes we have had the joy of their companionship and we now feel the anguish of their loss.

David from NC

I received Rescuing Sprite for christmas from who else but my dog Grace. (grandma bought it of course).

It was just the most wonderful book.

I to lost my best friend a year and a half ago, Dallas, he was my constant companion, my baggage carrier and the most wonderful boy in the whole world.

He love other dogs, loved my nephews and tolerated my two cats.

I adopted him when he was 8 weeks old and he was a very naughty puppy. I was blessed to have 8 wonderful years with him before he became sick.

He woke up one morning and could not walk, after many tests, mri’s and a week in the animal hospital it was determined he had a spinal stroke, the doctor at the hospital told me he would recover. ( I will never take another animal back there)

So I brought him home. He proceeded to go downhill from there. It was a rainy thursday night and he was crying in pain. I called the animal hospital who informed me there was nothing I could do for him.

I then placed a call to his vet at home no less (he is just the most wonderful man) and he asked me what medication I had for him. I told him valium and he informed me to give him about 5 or 6 to help him sleep through the night and 5 more in the morning to help his pain.

That call was the most heart breaking call I have ever made because the next morning I would be losing my best friend.

I layed on the floor with him for a while just looking at him, smelling him and talking to him.

When morning came we put dallas in my car and drove to the vet’s office. I layed him in my back seat and played my eagles CD which we always listened to in the car. We arrived at the office, my sister stayed with dallas in the car and I went in to let them know we were there.

I returned outside and at that moment another woman pulled up with her dog who proceeded to run over to my car, well dallas just layed there wagging his tail like crazy, he loved other dogs and I was so gratful to that dog for coming over to see him.

He passed away about 10 minutes later in my back seat. I have to say I have lost family members and have been sad, but nothing prepared me for the anguish I felt when Dallas left me. I kept his dog bed out for the longest time and would get down and bury my face in it just to remember his smell.

I still miss him to this day.

I adopted Grace from a shelter and she has brought me so much comfort and love.

No one will ever replace Dallas but I know he is looking down and smiling happy that I have given another dog a wonderful home.

Lisa from NJ

Princess, our blonde cocker spaniel, became a part of family when I was ten years old. I had wanted a dog for a long time but my parents had always resisted the idea. Mostly because we lived in a house with a sensor alarm so any animal would’ve always set it off. The summer before my tenth birthday we bought a new house and we could have pet in this one. My mother however said that if I wanted to have the dog so badly I’d not have to not only take care of it I’d also have to earn it. So we made a deal, if got straight A’s all year I would get a dog. So of course I worked harder than I had ever worked in my life and earned the dog as promised.

I remember so clearly the day we bought Princess. We were walking in the mall and passed the pet store. In the window they had a litter of cocker spaniel puppies for sale. Ever since I saw Disney’s “The Lady and the Tramp” I had wanted a cocker spaniel. We stopped to look and I saw her right away. She had her head leaning on the window sill and sleeping. “That one,” I shouted to my dad. So they took her out of the display and took us to their bonding room. Right away she came over to me and licked me and I knew that she was the one. We took her home that afternoon, June 6th, 1989. She was exactly eight weeks old. She immediately became a part of our family. Both my parents are huge animal lovers having had pets all their lives. She was smart, beautiful and loyal. People always commented on how beautiful she was and especially her blonde coat.

In 1994 our family had a major change take place when my father was transferred to Indonesia. We had a choice to make. Do we take Princess with us or not? She had been with us 5 years and was a full member of our family. We couldn’t imagine life without her. So we decided to take the chance and took her with us. We had to leave her in quarantine in Singapore for 5 days. They were the longest 5 days of my life. Read the rest of this entry »