Love is love,” I told her, as I tell all of my patients who are ashamed to find themselves shattered by the death of a dog. “Loss is loss.

Her fragility makes her uncomfortable, but it has a familiarity, too, like the biting cold of winter that you only half forget during other seasons.

This house is just a thing …. On your love list, always put the beating hearts at the top.

I’m convinced that petting a puppy is good luck.

I’ve always had this feeling,” Henry says, “that all dogs are really therapy dogs.

I liked the idea of adopting a dog that was beyond the puppy stage, a dog with an unknown span of life under his belt. It seemed only fair; he didn’t know what he was...

I have a theory that you get the right dog, the dog you need, for a particular stage in your life.