Rock Doc

It’s just a fact: most of us outlive our dogs. Indeed, for people who are dog owners throughout their lives, a lot of grieving is guaranteed. Fido #1 dies, is replaced by Fido #2 who also dies, and so on down the long line of dogs in our households.

I was reminded of how short a dog’s life is compared to ours when I read Ted Kerasote’s book, Pukka’s Promise. Kerasote is the best-selling author of Merle’s Door, a book about the relationship he had with a mixed breed dog named Merle. At the end of that book, Merle died of cancer. After an interval of a few years, Kerasote got a purebred puppy he...