By now, you may have noticed that I was on the Mark Levin Radio Show. I’ve been listening to Mark for about four years now. He’s my favorite radio show host, though I haven’t been able to listen to him as often since moving here because his show is recorded on comes on later in the evening.

Well, Mark wrote a book called “Rescuing Sprite” about adopting, and losing, a beautiful dog that he came to love and accept as one of the family. It’s a beautiful story that I highly recommend to anyone who has ever lost a loved pet in their lives. It was this book that reminded me again of Spooky Voodoolicious McSkinkalot, the puppy we saved in Iraq, and helped me cope a bit with having to leave him behind.

I had tried calling in a few times since reading the book, but the line was always busy. I remember back in 2004 being able to call in on the first try any time I wanted, but Mark has gotten pretty popular since then (and for good reason!). I wanted to tell him my story and how his book had helped me with the guilt of leaving Spooky behind to possibly be killed in the 2004-2005 violence that took hold of Fallujah.

Anyway, I don’t get depressed again, but I wanted to share the link with you of the interview. You can download it HERE or go to his Mark’s website to listen. Fast forward to 45:42 to hear my interview, but if you do you’re missing 45 minutes and 41 seconds of wit, intelligence, and humor from Mark.

I’m thankful to all of you who listened to the program and checked us out here for the first time. I truly appreciate all the support through comments and in my email. Marcus and I are both combat veterans of Iraq and are still active duty, so we put in a lot of time here and at work to tell our stories and those of the nameless. I’d like to add a few more memories that came back to me recently.

I remember the look in Spooky’s eyes when we picked him up. Either he was afraid we would hurt him or he was very cognizant of his mother’s death. His eyes were full of sadness, but we saw a better life for him than living off trash on the side of the road. Spooky liked to sleep in my rucksack on the more chilly nights, but mostly slept directly under my cot. Throughout the night, he would amble around our “house” visiting the other Soldiers I shared space with. He was our perpetual roving guard. He loved eating watermelon with us and hated MREs more than we did! He always sensed when I was frustrated or pissed off and would sit at my feet until I picked him up. Or, he’d reach up and put his front paws on the edge of my chair and stare at me with a deep look of concern until I allowed to sit with me. When we had to give him up, I almost missed my chalk because I didn’t want to leave him behind. I was trying to think of ways I could smuggle him back without getting into trouble.

Okay, no more Spooky talk. I’ll move on…