Dear Mark. I have listened to your show over the past few weeks some but I have had to turn the channel when you talk about your new book. I was the proud owner of a Golden Retriever. Sam was with us for 15 years and as of late going downhill fast. This morning I had to do something I dreaded for a long time. I always said I would take care of her as long as she wasn’t suffering. This last week was hard because it was obvious that she was suffering. This morning I had to have the vet put here down. We have lost a truly great friend and I’m having trouble dealing with it. The only thing I can focus on now is the good life she had. For 15 years she was loved like on of the kids. Now I realize by listening to your show it helped me deal with our loss better because I had time to reflect on the positives. Thanks again for all you do.

Jeff from MI

We had a Pug, about 7 years old and he died in our truck. It broke our heart and we swore we would never get another dog but last month we bought another Pug. He is 3 months old and a joy to have around.

Joe from IL

We adopted Maxi in the summer of 1991 when she was just six months old. We had no idea what happened to her in the past, we only knew we had adopted a great dog.

Maxi lived to be 14 years old. Not long after her 14th birthday, the vet was expressing her anal glands and found a lump. He thought nothing of it at the time, but told us to come back in one month so he could check it again.

In that one month time frame, the lump had more than doubled in size. We knew what was coming.

Maxi declined very quickly after the diagnosis. Her liver began to fail, she would rarely eat and she would throw up a lot, mostly bile.

Although she was a german shepherd, very few people who met her were actually scared of her. Those of us who are dog lovers, knows that, more often than not, beneath the protective exterior of a large dog, beats the heart of a pussycat.

Michelle from Ontario, Canada

I have said since I have been a teenager, I am now 50, that the problem with pets that with the exception of your last one, you always out live them. There has only been a period of a few years when i have not had a dog in my life. I currently have two dogs, Maya and Haley. Maya is the smartest dog that I have ever had and Haley is the most competitive dog that I have ever had. While Maya (Rottweiler/Newfoundland mix but I am sure that there is some Geman Shepherd in there) came from someone who that thought that they were creating a new breed, I call it mutt and then Haley (I belive is a purebread lab) was rescued from the Vancouver, WA Humane Society. The differences in them are astonishing. I only have to raise my voice to Maya and she does what she knows is right and if I raise it too loud she may sulk for days. Haley on the other hand has the attention span of a gnat combined with selective hearing. Read the rest of this entry »

Mark,
I find this a difficult message to write. I just lost my Tinker Bell on Tuesday, 12-18-07 @ 7:59PM due to a sudden illness. I am 59 years old and have had dogs most of my life. This one got to me. I feel she was sent to me by God to make me a better person. I feel confident that we share the same feelings which is why I ordered 3 of your books. I will give one to each of my children that currently have dogs.

I have always been told to watch the eyes of whomever you are in contact with as they are the windows to the soul. My Tinker had beautiful eyes and you could see right into her heart. She had nothing but love and devotion towards my wife, me and 12 cats. We all miss her. The cats are amazing as they keep looking for her.

I can’t wait to get the book so that I can try to understand what is going on with me right now. I can not get over the loss. I know I will eventually.
I have tried and tried to think of the bad things that she did and I can not think of one. I have never had an animal that has effected me this way.

She is missed.

Thank you for allowing us to send our rambling stories. I realize that most are just sad stories.
All the best to you and your family including Sprite.

Ronald fromTX

Lex attended the funeral of his best friend in March, playing with the 20-year-old Marine’s younger brother away from the crowd. He was beside Cpl. Dustin Lee when Lee was killed in a mortar attack in Falluja.

Wounded himself, Lex didn’t want to leave Lee’s side after the attack — fellow Marines had to pull him away from the young man’s body so medics could do their work.

Although some shrapnel remains in his body, Lex recovered from his wounds and returned to duty at the Marines’ Logistics Base in Albany, Georgia, to await a new assignment.

On Friday, Lex gets that new assignment — retirement to Lee’s family home in Quitman, Mississippi, where the 8-year-old bomb-sniffing German Shepherd will live out the rest of his life.

Jerome Lee, the young Marine’s father, lobbied the Marines hard for months to adopt the dog. Marine officials initially told Lee that it would be no problem to get the dog. But persuading the service to give up Lex before the dog’s mandatory retirement at age 10 proved to be a challenge. Read the rest of this entry »