Dear Mark,
This is my best girl Sadie. She’s a lab/chessy mix who is sitting faithfully at my side as I type this.
When I captured this priceless moment when she was about 15 months old, I came up with the following caption for a Christmas card:
“May your Christmas Season bring you fond memories of this face when you see paw prints on the carpet”
God Bless You for what you do. I just ordered your book on Amazon.com and urge anyone who has ever had a pet to do the same.
Respectfully,
Ted from VA

I Lost a dear friend just a week ago

He was always there for me

Every night or day

All it took to make him happy was a belly rub you see

He guarded the outside from the evils all around

Never did he lose his bravery or ever back away

No he protected me with pride every waking hour

Even though it kind of strange he never liked to play

Mike from Georgia

You have done something wonderful by sharing your story on your show. As I write this I’m being cuddled by one of the 3 Katrina rescue dogs we opened our home to after the hurricane. Anyone who loves pets and considers them part of the family will understand your story and the hurt that goes with it. Wife and I take in the older dogs from shelters and provide them happy homes while they can be with us. They are the most loving dogs because they know they are being saved. Encourage your listeners to visit their local shelters and take a dog home with them. Dogs over 5 years old are very hard to place and are often euthanized within 48 hrs because no one wants the older pets. They are such loves.
I encourage you to google the poem “Rainbow Bridge” if you have not already done so. I think it might give you some comfort. It gives my wife and I lots of comfort as we give up our older dog friends as we alway must. We’ll see them again someday.
thanks for highlighting this subject. There is so much need.

Mike from MD

Thank you so much for your loving book and sharing so much.

When my pomeranian, Aurelius. died as a result of multiple organ failure at the age of thirteen, my husband and I were heartbroken. My husband had been a somewhat reluctant dog owner, but cried as mush as I did to lose our “puppy”.
The house seemed empty that January and my husband began scouring the internet in search of another pup to love. We had about resigned ourselves to a long wait for a nearby litter of pomeranians to be ready when someone suggested trying petfinder.com. It seemed impossible that anyone would put a beloved pet, much less a pomeranian, in a shelter, but I tried.

Much to my surprise a shelter near us featured a young adult pomeranian who was in need of a home. We went to the shelter’s adoption event that very day and met “Picasso”. He seemed aloof not at all like our beloved Aurelius, who wa always quick to offer a friendly tail wag and bark.

The lady in charge of the event told us that “Picasso” had suffered a loss too, that his mistress had died suddenly (the same week as Arelius) and that her family had dropped him at a shelter (a kill shelter). Seems we had misjudged him and that we had grief in common with this pom-boy. What we had mistaken for aloofness was the sorrow and confusion that we were experiencing too!

We adopted Picasso, renamed him Topsy, and healed together. It took Topsy months to bark and be happy, but he has become as affectionate and loyal a friend as we could have dreamed of.

And somewhere, maybe, our Aurelius realizes that our inability to be without a dog is a tribute to him.

Cara from NJ

Meet Teddy, our 4th dog. We named him in honor of a great President, T.R., the roughrider who spent a few years in the badlands of North Dakota. Teddy is our 2nd rescue dog….he is family to along with another rescue dog Snoop, plus fellow Scottish Terriers Bushy and Beasley.

We love Mark Levin almost as much as we love our dogs. He is one of the nicest people on the planet!

Great book Mark…you truly are “The Great One!”

Scott from ND

Even though we had to say good-bye to Harvard, this story isn’t sad. Harvard is still very much alive, and our pain at having to part with him was softened by our knowledge that he has a great destiny ahead of him as a guide dog for the blind.

The guide dog group that bred Harvard believes that family-raised puppies turn out much better than kennel-raised pups. So they farm out all their beautiful puppies –golden retrievers, German shepherds, and labradors like Harvard– to volunteer families. And our young son volunteered.

So Harvard was brought to us, his puppy-raising family, when he was just 7 weeks old — a tiny tornado of sleek black fur, weighing only about 10 pounds.

Seventeen months and 70 rambunctious pounds later, after our son had taught him his basic obedience (sit! rest! down!), and we’d all learned to love him, Harvard was taken back to Guide Dog School for his specialized training.

And there, to our amazement, our loopy lab learned how to walk calmly in harness, how to gently “pull” a blind human around obstacles, how to cross streets safely. He just graduated with flying colors, and is now ready to be matched up with his new human.

So we’ll never get to see our wacky, silly, happy-tailed Harvard again — because once he’s bonded with his new owner, there can be no more contact with his puppy-raising family.

But we do have something to look forward to: After he’s settled in with his new human, we’ll get a letter telling us a little about that new owner, and how Harvard helps him or her to have a better life. We can hardly wait to get that letter!

(By the way, the name “Harvard” was chosen by the guide dog organization — if I’d had my druthers, Mark, I would’ve named him “Hillsdale” !)

Here’s a photo of Harvard doing his beseeching act. That’s the goofy look he’d put on whenever he thought he might be able to finagle a treat.

Joyce from NJ