just to get back on topic:

"It was less than a week later that I opened the waiting-room door and saw an elderly couple sitting there with (the rescue dog) on the end of a very new lead. He adopted his usual gambit of rolling on to his back as soon as he saw me, but this time there was no helpless appeal in his expression but sheer joyous abandon with the comical little face split across by a wide panting grin."

(part of the happy-ending conclusion of "Abandoned")