Meet Rusty, the baked-potato-brown dog who adopted the author when he was a child. He was more like a big brother than a dog, breaking up fistfights and dressing up for Halloween as a wolf. Also, meet Margarita, a shepherd/collie/retriever who arrived at the rescue center after starving for nearly a week. She eyed the volunteers suspiciously before she would eat from the bowl she was offered.

“I find the first moments of meeting a new dog so gloriously suspenseful and fascinating. I treasure the baby steps. It is a wonder to watch the tender birth of a relationship. How often I rush headlong into things at the expense of those first moments or walk away too soon . . . I leaned back and crossed my legs to let her know I wasn't going anywhere soon . . . I sat with Margarita quite a while that afternoon. Just to let her know someone would be there that day, for the scary parts.”