My name is Janeen. I am a Police Officer for the Department of Defense. I have been a Search and Rescue K9 Handler for about 15 years. I had the privilege of having a “One in a Life Time” K9 Partner in my life for 12+ years. When I brought home Busca on the first day, I knew he was something special, much less being the most beautiful Australian Shepherd I had ever seen.. He was about 8 week old and a fluff ball. We started training the next day. Busca was the first SAR Dog I trained and will always be the best! It was all fun and games in puppy training and he was the comedian. Even as an adult, Busca had a habit of letting the world know he did good, when he found what we were looking for. Between my loud hooplas for him doing great and his loud barking say “I know”, People could hear us for blocks. Busca was a Mommies Boy. When my now ex-husband stayed at home and Busca could not go with me somewhere, my ex would call him back to the house. Busca would then look at me and kind of say “Do I have to?”.

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This is Bear. He was there to welcome Sprite at the Rainbow bridge. I adopted Bear from the SPCA in March of 2003 at the tender age of 3 1/2 mo. He was diagnosed with Congestive Heart Failure about 1 month before his first birthday. We had 3 more great years together. I believe Bear was a German Shepherd/Bernese Mountain Dog mix.
I had to give him is angel wings on May 5, 2007. Bear was a great healer of souls. He is now at the bridge playing with a little boy he never “met” on earth but one that he shared a bond with for they both had a daily fight for life. They emailed each other discussing various thing/sicknesses, hardships, accomplishments and joys. Jacob, in Canada, lost his fight on August 31, 2007, one day before his 10th birthday. The day before Jacobs passing I received a note from him telling me that “Bear had helped him walk” – It was a life long dream of his to walk on his own. He told me he would work even harder to walk after Bear passed because he would be walking for Bear too because he and Bear were “still Partners” and he did just that.

Thank you for sharing yoru Sprite with us and thank you for adding this section to your site.

You are an awesome American!

Lisa from TX

I volunteer at the Bergen County Animal Shelter in Teterboro NJ. We are the largest animal shelter in NJ. We are grossly underfunded! We need adopters, we have cats, dogs, rabbits looking for forever homes! Help out if you can! Come adopt today!

Matt from NJ

Mark, thanks for bringing rescued pets to the forefront with your book. My copy is on order, and I look forward to reading it. I have four rescued cats, but my special one, Rocky, is my little “Sprite.” I got Rocky through PetFinder.com. He came to us sickly with bronchial pneumonia, but never missed a beat in the heart department. Or so we thought. One August afternoon, Rocky fell strangely off a chair. Ultimately, diagnosed with idiopathic epilepsy, Rocky began a six-month saga with various anti-seizure meds, but his seizures only increased. Fearing the worst, I took Rocky to a second neurologist. During the exam, she observed his seizuring and declared Rocky did not have epilepsy, he has syncope, his heart is stopping causing him to faint. Within days, Rocky was in surgery for a pacemaker. Now 2 ½ years later, Rocky, the pacemaker cat, is doing great. Some people look at me like I have three heads when I tell them about him, but they don’t know Rocky. I just smile contentedly with gratitude for my rescued cat. Thanks again for bringing attention to these poor forgotten animals. Some are lucky enough to make their way to a rescue group, but many do not. I attached a picture of Fred (black & white) and Rocky. Fred was a stray we found in Paterson, NJ. He’s a good boy.

 Pat from NJ

Bamber sits next to my bed every night. Well, her ashes do.
She was no different in my life though. She always sat by the door when I worked and would not move from her spot until I came home.

Bamber was born into time March 25th 1992. She left me one week short of her 15th birthday. She was then born into eternity. Without me. She was my soulmate who I never quite felt worthy of.
As I held her when she lay dying I sang her favorite song to her: A Pretty girl is like a melody. But this time she didn’t wag her tail.

She grew up watching over my children, she knew them as her babies. And my firstborn granddaughter. My husband taught Bamber how to protect them. Although it was quite natural to her being a German Shepard. She also was a big sister and mother to our Haley who was born into eternity in 1998. Oh did Bamber pine for her.
Bamber saw many pets come and go. She tolerated her brood with aplomb and care. Our cockatiel Star would ride on Amber’s back all around the house. Star’s first word was “Amber”. Star is not the same with Bamber being gone now. I’m not the same with Bamber being gone.

I grew up around dogs. And Bamber will most likely be the last for she is irreplaceable. I have cats. They are fun and lovable but the unconditional love and giving of Bamber is second to none.
My pictures of her are put away in storage. But my one earred droopy baby is always in my mind’s eye. I feel her nudge me at times as she always did to pick up my hand to rub her ear. This is one loss I will never recover from.

Piper from IL

You have truly touched our hearts with Sprite and his story. We have been married over 30 years and have had several dogs, many from a shelter, all of which were the greatest in each of their own way and always the center of the family. It is one thing when they grow old or have some infirmity that you can somewhat prepare yourself. We had neither when we lost our Rascal, a sheltie/pomeranian mix. Rascal had an enemy, the next door neighbor who simply hated dogs and would have nothing to do with them. We were leaving one Sat. morning to go out of town for the weekend when Rascal began acting very funny, spasms, loss of muscle tone. Of course we were heartborken when we found out that there was nothing we could do to save him and that Rascal had in fact been poisoned.

We did not have the funds to perform the autopsy, all of the tests they wanted to do, etc. just to try and prove what had poisoned our Rascal and even then if it turned out to be a household product it was difficult to “prove” who did it. Possibly with a crusader like you Mr. Levin we could have gone forward, but it was all we could do to bury that little dog and go on with life. several years later, we still have some of his toys, around the house.

To this day, we still talk about him and tears still come to our eyes. We learned that same weekend that 4 other dogs on our street also died from the same type symptoms. thank you for allowing your readers to have this opportunity. We listen to you every weeknight and Rascal’s memories come back so strongly. We will never forget that little dog that used to sleep on our bed, meet us at the door and literally smiled when he saw you. It took some time for us, but we have rescued another dog and watch over him night and day. take care and God Bless you.

Barbara & Phil from Florida