Last fall a friend from the museum where I volunteer lost her cat of more than a dozen years, and was seemingly inconsolable. I remember breaking with the pattern of condolences on her Facebook page and suggesting that there was another cat at the shelter that needed rescuing now, otherwise it might be the needle. She took the bait and has adopted another young cat who has filled the gap that losing the last one created. They love the new one while remembering the past one. The village where I live limits properties to three pets total, and I have consistently had three for the last 20 years. I am hoping that your fella makes a complete recovery, but if you end up with a vacancy in the house, don't put off rescue of another animal. And even with the current dog's recovery, he might like a friend. Every little bit helps when it comes to retrieving animals from the pandemonium of the shelter.

My pooch Pepper (the Blue Heeler) was at the city shelter for three months. When I took her for a one-on-one walk in an enclosure where you can interact with animals I sat on the short wall at the side and she didn't run around, she stayed there and climbed up to sniff my face, get in my lap, and get to know me. She was making the case for a bond, and when I brought her home she settled in so fast and so happily it was remarkable.

When you bring a shelter dog home and give them a soft bed in a quiet house they sleep soundly for the first time in months and it is wonderful to see. The next day I was in the yard with her and the other two and threw a bumper for the chocolate lab to fetch; he headed out for it and then there was a flash of black and white as she darted down the yard, grabbed the bumper and happily returned it to me. "You know this game!" I got another bumper so she and the lab could take turns fetching, and that was that.

There was an occasion when I took her to a vet clinic to have her nails trimmed and was taking the three dogs in one at a time. When I walked away from her at the clinic to take the Lab back to the car apparently she went nuts, pulling out of the muzzle and struggling to get up. As I headed into the store with the third dog the vet tech met me at the door with her, telling me what happened. I realized that this dog, who was about three years old when I adopted her, remembered being left behind before, and was having none of it. I always keep that in mind when she needs any kind of vet care, so she knows I'm nearby. Her heart has been fully given to me and I need to have a care for it. That connection can happen very quickly.