WhatFinger


Sprite, Griffen, Pepsi

Leaving paw prints all over our hearts



imageThis is the column before the one I’ll wish I never had to write. My little dog, Kiko, who has been a major part of my life for the past 13 years, has the looks and personality of a puppy. But until three weeks ago, so did Mark Levin’s beloved dog Pepsi. Joining Sprite of Rescuing Sprite fame and Griffen, who had the heart of a lion, Pepsi died on Sunday. “His tail was always wagging and he always had a smile on his face,” Levin posted in a note of interest on his homepage. “He loved everyone and was so darned smart. Pepsi never left my side.”

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For the Levin family, Pepsi’s death was all the more devastating coming just five months after losing Griffen at Christmas time. Just as it was between Thanksgiving and Christmas in 2006 when they lost the irrepressible half-border/collie half Cocker Spaniel who came on the run to the name “Sprite!”. A constitutional lawyer whose book Liberty and Tyranny portrays in bullseye fashion where America is headed today, Mark Levin is the best of the nationally syndicated broadcasters available on the airwaves. Like legions of others, I turn to Mark Levin as an unwavering light in the darkness in so many ways. In a world going topsy-turvy with worries of creeping Socialism growing by the day, the dial on the CFP Sirius radio is tuned into the compelling Mark Levin Radio show 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., every weekday. Not only does the prescient Levin more often than most anyone else break the news interviewing guests making the news of the day, the commonsense and intellectual intuition he applies to even the most vexing issues helps keep things in their proper perspective. In times when lies masquerade as truth, when there is so much disinformation out there, Levin, always on the cutting edge, keeps news seekers and pundits on the straight and narrow. It is not for wholly unselfish reasons that I am one of the millions awaiting his return to his home of the airwaves. Mark Levin is as valuable to big news as he is in the smaller news departments in our personal lives. Pet lovers tune in to MarkLevinShow.com in their sorrow of loss. Rescuing Sprite: A Dog Lover’s Story of Joy and Anguish left paw prints all over our hearts. At MarkLevinShow.com, there is a Dog Corner not only for Sprite, Griffen and now Pepsi, but a place where people can post stories and photos about their own experiences with pets and animal rescues. In the sorrow that comes with life on earth, it is inevitable that even the most beloved of dogs, including my Kiko, won’t live forever. When that sorrowful time comes, I will try to remember most how this little halfbreed blessed my life every day for 13, or more, long years. With a husband and son whose deaths mark my life and with family members long drifted apart after an orphanage upbringing, I see Kiko as my closest family member, but know in my heart I would have seen Kiko as my family even without the circumstances listed. Knowing how I would feel without Kiko, I knew any words of compassion sent to Mark Levin could not possibly ease the pain of Pepsi’s death. In the end, I told him in a note how I hoped that “God’s own angels” would minister to his broken heart. What I received back was typical of the great compassionate heart of Mark Levin; someone who would offer compassion to the person trying to extend it to him; the true story of how the news about a copy of Rescuing Sprite with a bullet hole came back to him through the father of a wounded soldier (here). It is a story that proves that even in the most heart rending of sorrows there is always somewhere a hovering hope. The God-given gifts of our pets outlive their time on earth with memories that crop up in much the same way that Pepsi’s smile and tail wagging did. Through Mark Levin, the lives of Sprite, Griffen and Pepsi were not just merely marked by just passing through but made indelible. For Sprite, Griffen and Pepsi left their paw prints all over our hearts.


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Judi McLeod -- Bio and Archives -- Judi McLeod, Founder, Owner and Editor of Canada Free Press, is an award-winning journalist with more than 30 years’ experience in the print and online media. A former Toronto Sun columnist, she also worked for the Kingston Whig Standard. Her work has appeared throughout the ‘Net, including on Rush Limbaugh and Fox News.

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