The Southern Command will be dark for awhile.

My best friend… sometimes my only friend… died suddenly this morning. Tripoli was my soul mate since he took over my life nine incredibly short years ago. Through the best of times and the worst of times he was there… until this morning.

The only person he ever bit was my ex-wife. If only I’d had the good sense to follow his lead.

In the dark times, late at night, bathed in the blue white light of the television, with a bottle of whiskey and my Glock, we defied them… and won.

The house is now terribly still, quiet… my guess is it will remain so.

At this point, I have but few words. Tripoli kept me from thinking about my own mortality… hyper-alter, hyper-active and hyper with his love… of food and, well, all things that moved.

He changed my life when he came, and now I really don’t know what I’ll do.

I’d appreciate it… if those who are so inclined would say a prayer for Tripoli for his journey.

I know we’ll meet again… because all Good Dogs go to Heaven.

I hope I can make the cut.

Gary from Texas

Pets are the greatest thing in the world. There is nothing like the unconditional love of a dog. I had a Blue Tick Coon Hound, Rocky, which I had to put down. It was sad but he was very sick. His buddy Bullwinkle died while I went on vacation the next year. But the greatest thing was being able to adopt my next two….Cheech and Chong. They are brothers.

Phil from Tennessee

Hi Mark, I wanted to share the story of my little baby girl doxie Tootsie. I actually just lost her 3 days ago, and I feel like my heart was ripped out. It’s even harder because she was only 3yrs old and the fact that it was so unexpected. She had hurt her back, so we took her to the vet. The vet gave her medicine and wanted to keep her to mark her progress and if needed let me know if she needed surgery. When I took her in the vet assured me it was serious but she had a really good chance even w/out surgery. Well I tried calling the vet everyday rarely getting a reply back. And so I wanted to take her to surgery because they recomended it and so I drove 8 hrs to a specialist to get her there for surgery. And well when I got there the Dr. informed me the other vet waited to long and she had no chance. Her kidneys and bladder were shutting down and she was completely paralyzed from her upper half down. Which is so discouraging because when I took her in she still had some feeling in her legs and she could get around some, but I guess it just wasn’t meant to be. But I miss her w/ all my heart and would have given anything to let her live. She was my baby, I raised her from a newborne puppy, because her mommy died. So she was more than just a dog she was my child. I will miss her little quircky personality. And I thank you for sharing your story, because it helps to know that I’m not alone. R.I.P. My little Tootsie girl

Jordan from Nevada

In 1996 I was the proud owner of a 155 pound rottweiler named “Scooby”. We thought it would be a great idea to get a small dog that could play with Scooby. We purchased a Black Toy Poodle from some friends of ours. We named him “Scrappy”. He weighed about 3/4 pound when we got him.

In September of that year we moved to Charleston, South Carolina on a temporary assignment for work. In December of 1996 we took him to the Goose Creek Veterinary Hospital in Charleston because scrappy had a small bump of his side and because we wanted to get him fixed. The veterinarian “fixed” him and examined the bump. He stated that the bump appeared to be some kind of deep bruise. We never laid a hand on Scrappy; we figured it must have happened when he was playing. We brought Scrappy home from the vent and watched him since he had just had surgery.

We were watching Scrappy on the bed when he started shaking and fell off the bed; it looked like he was having a seizure. We immediately took him to the veterinarian. The Vet began doing all types of tests; he then noticed that Scrappy had severe bruising on his belly. The veterinarian asked us how much money we cared to spend on Scrappy because some of the tests were very expensive. We told him money was not the issue, we just wanted our 6 month old puppy to get well. Read the rest of this entry »

It is with great sadness that I write this story.

Less than 24 hours after watching Mr. Levin discuss the story of his beautiful dog on Hannity & Colmes, I have found out that my (and my brothers) dog, Yukon, has passed away.

Yukon was the friendliest dog I have ever known. Born in July 1999, Yukon (a beautiful Siberian Husky) lived almost 8 1/2 years that brought our family so much joy.

In 2002, 3 years after we adopted Yukon, my wife developed terrible allergies. That, and along with a transfer to the city of Chicago, it was with deep sadness that we had to find a home for Yukon. Luckily for us (and for Yukon) my brother and his family agreed to take him in. Which, to the delight of all, kept Yukon in the family.

Yukon touched the lives of everyone he came in contact with. Years after my brother took him in, Yukon was more than excited to see me. Today, two families are mourning the loss of their dog and friend, Yukon.

See ya buddy…You will be missed.

DAvid from MI

This is a story of a DOG named Teddy who gave my 86 year old father, my sister and I life again after the death of a spouse and mother. Teddy a lapso apso shih tzu was rescued from the Northshore Animal League and for 9 Years brought back life to our home and family. People said we should get another dog so my sister purchased a shih tzu named Pepper. The two got along very well right from the beginning. But as God had another wish, he took Teddy away from us SUDDENLY on June 27th, during a thunder storm, Teddy was terrified of the thunder and kept jumping in and out of the bath tub and the last jump killed him. My sister being a nurse did CPR and mouth to mouth but to no avail. This had to be the SECOND worse day of my families life.

Teddy was a replacement for a wife and mother, and then he was taken from us. My father was not the same, as he put it, he had not cried so hard and so much since he lost his wife, you see Teddy and my dad would have conversations in the morning, and special petting times..Teddy was my dads best friend as he was to my sister and I. Pepper who is 8 was also very confused, he had lost his buddy as well. Since Teddy’s death, we have bought another dog into the family, (plus a cat which is truly new to my family), as in all the letters and notes written we who are animal lovers are very special, people we all seem to have a special bond…just by the number of notes I have read. To Mark Levin, thank you for making me feel right, that I think about Teddy daily, pat his cremation box to say hello, and to at times tear up remembering the wonderful times he brought to our family..Good night and God Bless

Regina from NY