It seems impossible that a mere three months after Poppy arrived I could’ve become so attached to her—and she to me. She’s hysterically funny, crazy-smart and won’t leave my side when she’s out of her pen.

Apart from some competitive behavior when facing off with my dogs (she threatens them mercilessly with head-butts) and the rare indoor bowel movement (if that’s what you call all those little...

Among life’s imponderables (like why my nine year-old son prefers Lox on bagels to pancakes with syrup) is the issue of why some people think it’s OK to drive around with an unsecured dog in the back of a pickup. Ditto that on a motorboat, or with a car window wide open and two paws perched precariously on the window frame.

In vet school I knew someone who witnessed the worst kind of pet...