Sunday, December 09, 2007

Fur Children Revisted

Last night, I got the chance to read political radio host Mark Levin's new book, Rescuing Sprite: A Dog Lover's Story of Joy and Anguish. "Yawn," I thought. The story didn't really sound that intriguing to me--a man who is upset by his dog being sick and writes an entire book on his family's relationship with the animal. I wrote a while back on the nonsense of people who call their pets their fur children and it seemed a bit odd to dwell over a dog so much. However, after reading Rescuing Sprite, I might just change my mind.

The book is more than a story about a sick dog and a distraught owner who treats his dog like one of his kids --okay, Levin kind of does, but that is not the point--it is the tale of a human connection to a spirited friend who sat with the author while he was sick, helped a family to feel complete and taught Levin to deal with loss, love and letting go.

In-between running a business during the day and broadcasting from his studio at night, (sounds familiar) Levin spends much of his time with his two dogs, Sprite and Pepsi. Sprite is an older dog who is sick with arthritis and other ailments, yet he is gracious under duress and never stops trying to live life fully. Levin watches him in amazement and realizes that the structure and small intimate time that he has with his dogs and family are the most important moments of his life. Politcs and work take a backseat in Levin's life as he spends his time thinking about Sprite's quality of life and how he will deal with the inevitable death of his friend.

While the book sounds like a real tear jerker, it is not. It celebrates life, love and the spirit of an animal who brought the author great joy. It's a great read, I couldn't put it down until I finished it and will definitely be adding this to my Christmas list for the dog lovers I know.

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11 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have not read the book. I am not a great fan of pets. Especially male cats. My oldest daughter had one years back. They destroy furniture and carpet.

But Mark Levin is an incredible human being.

9:54 AM, December 09, 2007  
Blogger BobH said...

On the other hand, I am a great fan of pets. Everybody I live with has four legs and a tail - 2 cats and a dog. One of the cats is a 4 month old kitten who is a pain in the butt. He mock attacks everything, including the other cat and the dog's legs. The dog is fourteen years old, deaf and slightly arthritic but otherwise in good health, an absolute joy to take an evening walk with.

I can honestly say that I prefer the company of people's pets over the company of the people themselves. The pets are much less stressful to be around. They simply don't have the brainpower to really good at social manipulation and have relatively simple demands. Dominance struggles with them are comparatively easy to resolve and I've never had a dog or cat be treacherous, unlike humans, especially women.

10:22 AM, December 09, 2007  
Blogger Mercurior said...

imagine if you can if the book was about a child instead of an animal, or an elderly person.

just because he has animals theres a lot of negative press. are animals any less deserving of love, just because they dont speak like us or act like us.

love for whatever or whoever is the best thing to being a human, in fact to me its the only criteria to be human the act of feeling love.

4:33 PM, December 09, 2007  
Blogger AmericanWoman said...

I'm glad you came around on this Dr. Helen. Pets are important to us. It has been shown that pet owners have lower blood pressure when being around pets and live longer, happier and healthier lives.

Pets do what nothing else can. Give us unconditional love. They can be fur babies, friends or elderly parents that we now must care for and make life and death decisions about. With people living more individual lives and many not having 'real' children, pets are becoming more and more 'human'.

We just had to put our cat in quarantine while he had treatment for hyperthyroid, which involved radioactive iodine. It's been miserable for us without him. And I don't even want to tell you how much it cost.

4:57 PM, December 09, 2007  
Blogger Joe said...

I've had two pets that weren't worthless; a cat and a mouse. The other dogs, cats and even fish were total nightmares.

Incidentally, pets don't give anyone love, unconditional or otherwise. It's cute to believe otherwise, but utterly delusional.

9:14 PM, December 10, 2007  
Blogger AmericanWoman said...

Speak for yourself. By the way you talk about your pets, I'm not surprised.

While I don't expect fish to show much love, dogs and cats most certainly do.

9:30 PM, December 10, 2007  
Blogger holdfast said...

I thought about buying this book for my wife for Channukah, but was worried it would depress her. The one really awful think about pets is knowing how you are going to far outlive your furry companion. We've had our pup for almost 3 years now, and I know that she makes us better and more considerate people. I know she is not a child, but she has certain needs that must be met, and I think that it is good training for people on thier way to having kids.

3:48 PM, December 11, 2007  
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