RESCUING SPRITE
By Mark R. Levin
(Simon & Schuster, 216 pages)

IF you love animals, especially dogs, this book is for you. It easily warms the heart and makes you go awww, but be forewarned: it will also make you shed a tear. It will make you angry at life’s impermanence; after a while, it will move you with its message of love and commitments, making you reflect, pause and take stock of your behavior towards those you love.

A very personal account of one man’s love for his two dogs, it has at its core the message that life is to be celebrated. The story works on so many levels, chief amongst them the fact that our canine friends can bring much joy to the family; that they can rally family and friends together in times of crisis, that their loyalty is unconditional and unquestioned, and that it is truly and really our privilege to be given the opportunity to care for them.

Author Mark Levin, a syndicated broadcaster in the United States, wrote this as a tribute to his beloved pet.

He and his family took in a half-Border Collie/half-Cocker Spaniel which they named Pepsi in 1998. But this is less the story of Pepsi than Sprite, a Spaniel mix which they adopted from a local shelter six years later.
Sprite was much older than originally thought. Worse, beneath its gentle nature, beautiful face and soft, huggable fur, it suffered from a degenerative disease, something apparent only when the dog collapsed shortly after it was accepted into the family.

It was the start of a long journey for the Levin family, one that was filled with much anguish as they made countless trips to the vet, all the while finding surprise comfort in the animal’s boundless optimism and cheerful outlook.

Theirs was a bond that grew deeper as their time together grew shorter. And when it was time to put the animal to sleep because the family could not bear to see it suffer any longer, how could one not cry with the Levins, as they did when it was time to say goodbye?

Rescuing Sprite does not pretend to be anything but a personal outpouring of emotions of a dog lover who wished to document how the animal came into his life and touched him in unmeasurable ways with its boundless optimism and unconditional love.

In a perhaps desperate way, it’s a feeble attempt to ensure his beloved pet lives on, albeit in the pages of this little tribute.

How relevant is it to the rest of us? After putting down this book, which I easily completed in two days, I’d say, “Plenty!”. It might have been a painful read at times because of the acute sense of loss but mostly it was uplifting, filled with positive vibes.
I like it when the author writes that it’s “his privilege” to have had the opportunity to look after Sprite, rather than seeing it as bad luck for picking a sick dog. I know how the ugly Malaysian would have acted — in all probability, drive the dog kilometres out of town and then abandoned him — and I hang my head in shame.

I don’t have a dog to call my own but I know that due to my cultural upbringing, I’m probably incapable of loving a pet so much as did the author. But reading this book may compel all you canine lovers out there to, in his words, to “hold your dog closer in your arms — or in your memories”. For the rest of us, it really does make us wonder what we are really missing out on by not opening our hearts and homes to these animals.

A note attached to the review copy indicates that part of the proceeds from the sale of this book will go to animal shelters.