“It’s important to be calm and quiet because we don’t know how these dogs will react to children,” I remind my six-year-old in the parking lot of the animal shelter. I hate walking along Death Row, but I can save one today. Overwhelmed, I read the cage cards, stopping in front of a large four-year-old Australian Shepherd mix who looks at me quietly. She walks calmly on her leash and sits. My daughter runs exuberantly in circles around the dog, jumping, skipping, singing, hands waving everywhere. The dog looks unblinkingly up at me, unfazed. “You’re hired. Get in the car.”
Elizabeth Fenley taught English for fifteen years, raised her now-21-year-old daughter, and lives in her joyfully Empty Nest with six delightfully boisterous rescue dogs.