Hannah
I adopted my dog Hannah from your organization back in 2007. We have had many years of love and companionship with her since that time. Hannah was also in her adopters wedding. She lived a wonderful considering where she came from. Painted with gang markings from Rosie's red lake to a wonderful forever family who adored her. Even though she was lost to an aggressive illness, she will always be remembered and loved. Hannah was a special girl, inside and out. WE LOVE YOU!

Hattie
It is with a very heavy and broken heart that I am emailing you to let you know that my little Hattie has passed. I adopted her on April 28, 2014 and working on her potty habits were extremely challenging I have never regretted adopting her. I gave her the best gift of all on 12/24 – freedom. Freedom from pain and freedom from the bad memories of abuse and neglect. She was starting to suffer from geriatric vestibular disease, arthritis, kidney disease and lower spinal issues. It was only recently that she started to cuddle and let me hold her in my arms and I am grateful for those moments. I tried to spoil her as much as possible – she had a definite weakness for poached chicken bits and I swear that it made her smile each and every time she had a treat. She such a sweet and beautiful little dog and she deserves to be seen and remembered. ld like to donate her things to MARS as I know she would approve. I would so love to give the food to you. I know she would want to help as there are so many dogs in need.

Hayden
In Loving Memory of Hayden

"UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN..." -author unknown-

I will never know what I did to deserve such an awful life full of abuse and neglect. My life had become so sad and lonely it was like living in an endless, dark tunnel. I remember looking up one day and seeing a bright light shining at the end of the tunnel. The light was so bright I thought that God must have sent an angel to finally end my suffering.

God did send an angel, he sent you. The bright light I had seen was your smiling face. You promised me that my days of neglect and abuse were over. My battered body and broken spirit hardly dared to believe it was true. You opened your heart and your home and gave me more love and comfort and safety than I had ever known before. You gave me the softest bed my tired, aching bones had ever felt and more toys and attention than I had ever dreamed existed.

I no longer cringed when a hand was raised near me, because your hands had only kindness and treats to offer me. I no longer feared the sound of feet approaching, because your feet had never kicked me, they had only taken me on wonderful adventures to exciting new places.

Although "quantity" of time can be measured in days and weeks, there is no way to measure the "quality" of time. So there is no way to really measure just how deeply your love and devotion affected my life. But sometimes, even love & devotion and all the medical attention in the world can't heal a body that has been battered and broken for too long.

So please do not be sad that I am gone. You performed a miracle in what little time we had together. You made my spirits soar and helped my soul find peace and contentment. From the day I met you I never suffered again, not even at the end.

Just knowing that my memory would live in your heart forever gave me the strength to let go and find my way to Rainbow Bridge. So go forward from today with only happy memories of me in your heart and let them give you the strength to keep on lighting up sad, lost lives.

Remember I will live forever in your heart and in the stars up above and my star will shine brighter with every life that's touched by your love.

"Until we meet again..."

Hazel
I adopted the most beautiful girl from you 6 years ago. Her name was Hazel and I am deeply saddened to say she passed away on Oct 21st. She gave a courageous fight in her battle with osteosarcoma which resulted in a leg amputation and 5 rounds of chemotherapy. In May she was diagnosed with hemangiosarcoma and she fought hard for almost 6 months before she finally succumbed. I am heart broken beyond repair but I am also so grateful to have had her in my life. Thank you for doing what you do and saving the best people on the planet. My Hazel was as sweet and loving as she was beautiful, she made it a better place because of your organization. Warmest Regards, Jay

Henry
We said goodbye to our best friend Henry this past Sunday. I know everyone says that their dog is the best, but Henry truly was the best of dogs. He was gentle, and patient, and so so smart. He loved to play tug of war and go for runs and long walks and to sit in the sunshine and watch the world go by. Car rides made him so happy. So did soft serve ice cream and cheese and belly rubs. He hated thunderstorms and cardboard boxes and the sound of crowd noise during sporting events on tv. He’d race around the dog park trying to herd all of the other dogs and would always pick up the pace on our walks if a jogger passed us, because he had to be in the lead. Sometimes he’d get in a fight with the coffee table just because, and it was never really clear who won. Henry loved people, and he stole the heard of every human he met. It was impossible not to be charmed by his big brown eyes. We are so grateful that we found Henry through MARS. His profile is still online from when we adopted him: https://www.midwestanimalrescue.org/animals/detail?AnimalID=947714 . He was 14 and a half when we said goodbye, and we know how lucky we are to have gotten to spend so much time with him. He made every single day that he was in our lives better. Still, we thought we had so much more time. The end came really quickly, and it was hard to watch our playful, alert, and happy dog’s body fail him so suddenly. We are absolutely heartbroken and our home feels empty and wrong without him. There’s not much about the past year that has been good, but we are thankful that we were able to spend literally every one of those days with Henry. We were able to give him extra time to chase squirrels and roll in the grass and play in the fresh snow. We will treasure those extra hours forever. Goodbye, Henry Bear. We love you so much. Joe and Stephanie