Blue (a beautiful Bluetick) came into our life unexpectedly in 1995. Our 16-year-old son, Chris, found him wandering around in the fields in our neighborhood. It took Chris a while to be able to get close enough to put a leash on him but he did and Blue was brought to our house. He had a collar on with a phone number on it and we called the fellow who owned him but he wouldn’t come and pick him up despite our efforts. It seems that Blue was not a great hunting dog…. he’d run away when he was turned loose and his owner was tired of it. That is how we came to own this dog.

Blue wanted NOTHING to do with any human…NOTHING! We never had a dog we couldn’t pet and it took a full year of my husband working with him for Blue to trust us. Over the years, Blue became the best hunter my husband had. You couldn’t walk into the back yard without Blue running up to you to be petted and loved. If you sat outside, he wanted to crawl into you lap. He was one of the most loving animals we ever had and we always have at least 8 dogs running around at all times. The relationship he and my husband had was always special.

The hardest decision my husband had to make was to have Blue put down in October 2007. He sat on the floor with Blue in his arms for hours talking to him and crying. I’m crying as I write this. All three of my sons and my husband cried for two weeks and still do when we speak about him. We were so lucky to have had him for 12 years. That rescued dog was loved beyond most people’s comprehension.

Mary Jane from NC

Mark,

I spoke to you at the end of your 1st hour on 12/12/07. Molly lost her dog in January, she’s been searching for it since then.

Uncle Dick was a WWII Marine paratrooper, Shot in the back while paratrooping on those (Guam & Iwo Jima) islands. His final duty in the Marines was bulldozing corpses at Hiroshima,

He whistled just like you can. That’s why I “lost it” when talking to you on the radio today,

You reminded me of Uncle Dick. From 22+ years ago.

Thank you.

Please whistle for Uncle Dick & Me.

James from MI

Hey Mark,

I have not had a dog for a few years,10 years tooo much! my five year old wanted a dog. Like a lot of people, I said we have two cats, and that is enough! but when we found this new member to our family, it all seemed to click. We got her from a shelter in Mariposa co. CA. She is now appx. 2 years old, and is one of the best things in my life besides my wife, daughter, and all my family. We love youre show, keep up the great work. Lots of love.

The Kroekers from CA

hey mark,

well its me josh again. i just finished reading the copy of rescuing
sprite my wife got me for my birthday. i gotta tell you mark that is the
most beautiful book i’ve ever read.

I too am still dealing with the loss of my best friend dusty. he was a black cocker spaniel mix. he had beautiful
brown eyes and long black eyelashes. he was my buddy. i adopted him from
the la county animal shelter when i was in jr high school and he lived until
summer of this year. i woke one morning to my neighbor calling into me that
my mom and dog were being attacked by a pit bull. i raced outside and my
neighbors and my mom we’re trying desperatly to rescue dusty from the jaws
of this mad pitbull. through the screams of my family and neighbors i knew
that i had to act fast. Read the rest of this entry »

NASH Man this is harder than I thought. Fifth draft here…This dog followed me to work one day and of course I called my wife to convince her to let me bring him home. Ten unforgettable years later I changed jobs just to work closer to home so I could better tend to him as he started to suffer from a cancer. To this day I miss that single bark of his from the back seat of the car as I pass through a toll booth. Maybe he was saying hello, maybe he was complaining about the toll. Maybe both! Thanks so much for this forum. Nash, meet Sprite!

Charles from FL

My friend, Micki has a little maltese mix named Rascal. I have a Bichon named Bubba. They get along ok, except in the car because they don’t like to take turns driving. Rascal was 11 years old when he got out of the fence at the groomer’s and ran into the woods. We all looked for days for Rascal, including Bubba. We went up and down the roads and through the woods, calling Rascal, and Bubba would bark to Rascal. Micki always said Rascal was her best friend. We did not find him. 3 months later, Micki moved to Virginia.

About 6 months after she moved, I came home from work to a voice mail from a lady saying she had my dog. Well, I looked over at Bubba and thought, what is she talking about? So, I called her and told her she had left the message on the wrong person’s machine. She said ‘no, the vet gave me your number, off the rabies tag, and said this dog’s name is Rascal.’ After 9 months! I could not believe it. I had forgotten that I had taken Rascal for his shots with Bubba and the vet put him in my name – that was a miracle itself, because they never would have found Micki.The woman said she found him outside her house, matted cold and hungry – about 40 miles away from where he went missing! Well, I did not call Micki right away because I wanted to be sure I had Rascal first. I asked the lady if she would take Rascal to my co-workers house, who lived in her town, because I didn’t know that town, so she did that and my co-worker brought Rascal to work the next day. Read the rest of this entry »