NO GOING BACK

How a big, needy foster dog (who was afraid of everything) gained confidence, won over his new family, and inspired this touching, pandemic-era essay.

- MAGGIE SHIPSTEAD

IN THE FIRST WEEKS of March 2020, as my home city of Los Angeles shifted from deep denial to imminent lockdown, my Instagram feed filled with entreaties to foster shelter animals. The idea was that even if you weren't in a position to adopt a pet permanently, you would probably be stuck at home for a while (maybe even a whole month!), and by giving an animal a break from the stress of a shelter environment, you'd make that animal more adoptableby someone else, of course.

My beloved dog, TyTy, had died in January, just before his 15th birthday, and I had no plans to fill that vacancy anytime soon. During TyTy's old age, I'd started traveling a lot for work, and I'd come to rely so heavily on my parents for dog-sitting that eventually TyTy made it clear that he'd prefer to live full-time with his grandparents in San Diego, where I, his flighty, absentee mother, would be permitted to visit. After he died, though we all mourned him, my parents and I agreed our lives would be simpler without a collective dog to care for, especially given that I was anticipating another heavy travel year (ha!) and finishing a novel.