In March 2002, our Golden Retriever, Ralph, became very ill so we took him immediately to our vet hoping to learn the reason and get him well. Two weeks later Ralph lost 20 pounds, he couldn't walk and refused food, all he wanted was to be held by us. After many phone calls to the vet and visits to the clinic, we only knew that Ralph kept getting worse, his health was deteriorating more each day.

Something had to be done so we called a friend who referred us to an integrated, holistic clinic for pets. At the initial visit the vet asked for all the pertinent information about Ralph, such as date of birth, when he got his shots, what shots he had gotten and other information that we didn't have memorized. This meant we had to go back to our original vet and ask for a copy of the records. In the meantime the vet checked him out and immediately diagnosed the problem and informed us he needed emergency surgery to save his life. Little did we know that he had swallowed something that had cut his intestine in two places and he was dying from it. During the surgery we were told he probably would not make it, which tore us apart and broke our hearts. We pleaded for the vet to do everything he could to save his life. We were assured he would, but a great deal was in God's hands. Miracles do happen, by the end of the surgery it looked as if Ralph would make it. Indeed he did get back to health after a week in the hospital, three months of home nursing and a great deal of love.

I tell this story because Ralph is the reason we started PetsBook, a simple, creative way to keep a pet's records. We had asked the vet what we could have done to help him, his advice was to always bring pet's records and medical history. Most people don't have all that information in one place, the PetsBook is the easiest way to have all the information in one place, use it as a record and reference book, grab it in an emergency, it may save your pet's life one day. It sure would have helped me with Ralph and from now on I have one for each of my pets and we recommend you do too!