This is a story of incredible love and loyalty. My father had a close friend named Russ. Russ was married for 50 years when his beloved wife died of cancer. This was the most devastating thing that could possibly happen to this man and he mourned her until he died. About three years after she passed, Russ had a stray dog show up on his porch. A scraggly looking mutt that he let in and fed. Well once you do that, you own him. So Russ and this dog, which he named Biscuit became very close and were always together. Russ had a vacation home in Baja, Mexico and he and Biscuit used to go there about once a year for a few months. Then, in 2001, Russ’s sister passed away and his family tried to reach him but couldn’t. They knew he was in Mexico so his cousin went there to find him. When he got to the house, he found that Russ had died and next to him was Biscuit, also dead. As it turned out, Russ had a massive stroke and had died on the floor of his living room. Biscuit had died of starvation. There was a bag of dog food on the kitchen floor that was torn open and there was still food in it. The dog had lost his will to live without Russ and had starved himiself to death, even though there was still food. He was laid to rest at Russ’s feet in his coffin and the urn with his wife’s ashes in his right hand. The headstone reads: Here lies Russ, Elma and Biscuit, forever together.

Ed from WA

Mark,
My most sincere sympathy goes out to you. Over the years I have had to put 3 cats down and it is a pain that cannot be described. There is, however, another way to look at this that might make you feel better. Our pets are members of our families, making this decision so very difficult. On the other hand, if this was a person you would be forced to watch them in pain to the bitter end with no chance of relieving their suffering. With our pets we do have the opportunity to close the book once they’ve lost the quality of life. It is a remarkable gift that we can give to our pets that we cannot give to our human family members. I hope this makes you feel better.

Paula from Ohio

One hot summer day, I pulled into the parking lot of a local restaurant and spotted a cute little dog sitting in the middle of the parking lot. The precious little dog was sitting by a car that was parked in the handicapped parking space. A woman was holding the dog when I walked up and I asked if it was her dog. She responded no and asked me if I wanted a dog? It was so hot outside, her fur was all matted, she had no collar and the parking lot was on a very busy road.

I said to my daughter, “I can’t leave her here. Put her in the car.” When we got her home, we realized she was covered with fleas and had to keep her locked up in the utility room even after we bathed her. We could not allow her near our other dog, Tasha because of the fleas.

We did not know what to do with her, but we figured she was abandoned. We had her groomed and dipped. The groomer told us she was a purebred Lhasa Apso.

We tried to locate an owner, but to no avail. We decided to keep her. In no time she stole my heart and soon, the hearts of my daughter and husband. My daughter named her Brandy.

She became the light of our lives. My husband adored her and so did I. She was full of life and loved to play with her toys and chase squirrels.
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I rescued a dog from a shelter she was about 2 and 1/2 she was very abused and we had her for about 7 years. She had the same thing that your dog had the running around in circles and thought it was a brain tumor. I decided to put her down to sleep that day and was so hard. My neighbor came with me. I held her in my arms and the vet just kept on telling me when to talk to her. I stayed a long time. It is two months now and I was very depressed didn’t want to do anything etc. It was so hard but she is not suffering any more

Doreen from NY

My family and I recently had to make the difficult decision to put our precious Greyhound, Hornet to sleep. We rescued our big guy in 1999 from the Birmingham race track (our Hornet even had his own record there). He was such a good sport when we added to our family with 2 human babies…he complained a little but loved them with all of his heart. Our big guy lost the use of his back legs so we decided that it was time for him to leave this world. My husband was with him when they gave him the last shot and as if he knew how bad his daddy’s heart was hurting, he looked up, wagged his big boney tail and said good-bye.
Thank you, Mark for writing this book!

Kelly from AL

Mark: Many thanks for writing this book. I assure you it will help anyone that is experiencing this grief. It is the most awful feeling I can only decribe it as an empty hole. Last Friday November 2nd 2007 we had to put our Boxer, Buster to sleep. Like you, we adopted Buster and he was the light of our life. We were blessed with ten years but hardly enough…..

Thanks again

Mario from AZ