The agonies and ecstasies of adopting a rescue dog — or two

There’s a particular kind of love that comes with a rescue dog. It’s definitely not easy, but it is real and worth it.

As a rescue dog mom, I end up regularly checking in on Instagram for stories from all kinds of rescues, and one of the most depressing constants is how quickly animals are returned

I will say this at the beginning of the story. At the end, the dog dies. That’s the inevitable truth of it.

I didn’t grow up with dogs. Flee, my first, arrived into our lives in 2012, when I was in my forties. Like a lot of modern love stories, it began online.