I just sat down this morning and read your book cover to cover within a few hours time. With a box of tissue at hand, I have to say I am very happy that you took the time and sentimental efforts to write down all of your personal thoughts and feelings to share with complete strangers. I have to admit, I am not much of a talk radio listener, and did not know much about you prior to this book…but now, I actually feel as if I do.

A little history of how I got your book…In July this past summer, I was packing up for our yearly road trip to visit family up north, as we have done every year for the past 6 years. We would either go during Christmas, or in the summer.

Eve was my co-pilot. In fact, she loved to travel with me so much, that she had worn down the leather on the door with her paws in my leased car! (whoops!) Eve and I became best friends in November of 2000. She was a lost puppy and a friend of mine found her weeping after she must have fallen into an irrigation ditch. It was a rainy October night when he found Eve, she was scared, wet, cold and lost. My friend tried to find her mom and dad. The nearest signs of any type of community was a trailer park down the road from this irrigation ditch. He went door to door looking for the owners of this little pup. One woman told him that the dog was once hers and that she gave it to the guy down the road, but he was put in jail. End of story. He began a search for a GOOD home for this little girl, because he could not keep her. He asked me to put up a sign at my work, I looked at the sign and on it was a printed photo of a little wet big eyed doggie and I said…OH MY GOSH….I need to meet her! The sign never went up. And I “adopted” EVE (who was named after being found on the eve of Halloween). Read the rest of this entry »

Mark, I listen to you every night and I enjoy your show. We adopted a dog from the pound in Florida 10 years ago. He is the love of our life. I know we don’t have many more years with him so we enjoy what we have now. Walks and taking him with us everywhere we go.

Keep well and will be listening to every night.

Darlene from TN

My story is of a cat, I called ‘BOX’. She always liked to get into boxes, when she was younger. I got her in front of a K-mart store in 1974, in Tallahassee, Florida.

She was a calico color and was a family member to the end. When my father would eat boiled peanuts on the bed, there was the cat joining him eating them. She would sleep underneath his underarm, curdled up, with a very much secured feeling on her face. She would sit on my mothers lap (mom has a big stomach, due to me being born; 10 pounds, 10 ounces) and stretch her paws around mom’s waist. In the summer of 1981, when noticed she was getting very thin, around her back legs. My parents took the cat to the vet and they came home in tears. They told me that the diagnosis was bad the cat had leukemia! We were given special medicine, to be fed by her with an eye dropper. I spoiled that cat with ice cream (with medicine) for the last week of her life).

Then something strange happened on her last day, before we took her to the vet to be put to sleep. On the night before, she slept at the foot of my parent’s bed, instead of by my father. She eventually made her way to my room and slept at the foot of my bed. When I went to go get her, and put her in the cardboard box and take her to the vet, she went crawling, in pain to try to get into the box, on her own. It was if she ‘knew’ that it would soon be over! My parents took her, to the vet and brought her back and I buried her in that cardboard box. I wrote a note, stating that losing her, was like the death of a sister and stuck it underneath her paws.

Mark, your right, we are the lucky ones indeed; to have our pets, to help us navigate through hard times and to provide comfort, when it seems most needed!

Vern from FL

Hello Mr. Levin,

I ‘m writing you as an animal lover as well. I recently lost my Beagle Tuffy to cancer. My daughter who work with a rescue where I found Tuffy Had him creamated for me from a pet mortuary. I know the pain you felt with the loss of Sprite and in time it will heal. Remeber this though if not for people as ourselves what chances or hope would these little friends have? This is the thought I have and it helps. I know Tuffy is in a better place though I miss him greatly. At least he dont have to hear the wacko libs. Thank You Sir for reading my letter
Cordially,

John from FL

First I would like to say I am sorry for your loss of Sprite I know how much you must miss him. I truly loved your book and I couldn’t put it down. I have 2 rescues myself and would be lost without them.

Liz from FL

Hello Mark!

I just finished reading your book and cried like a little baby! So I decided I must tell you our story….

We had a beautiful Golden Retreiver named Dusty. She was born June 3, 2001. We had gotten her as a 6 week old puppy and she was a joy! We never had any problems with her chewing anything (as most golden puppies do!) or with housebreaking her. She was so smart and loving and could do no wrong in our eyes. She was the first Golden we had ever owned and because of her we decided we will own no other breed. She loved us like no other dog has done before.
One day we noticed a lump on her rib cage, so I loaded her up and took her to the vet. He immediately suspected bone cancer, but wanted to do a biopsy to be sure. She was only 16 months old at the time. The biopsy confirmed it was osteosarcoma. The vet told us we could do chemo and radiation, but it would probably only give her a few extra months and her quality of life would not be very good. We decided we did not want to put her through that. He gave us pain medication for her and we took her home. We were devastated. After the biopsy the cancer grew like crazy. It wasn’t long and the knot had grown to the size of a softball. Dusty NEVER let on that she was in any sort of pain. She remained a loving, gentle soul comforting us through this, when she was the one who needed it. My husband and I were both torn up. Like you, we made sure to spend as much time as possible with Dusty. We knew our time with her was coming to an end quickly because she was startng to eat less and was growing more lethargic every day. Read the rest of this entry »