An Old Dog That Found a New Best Friend

Lucky for Edsel, it was a right-time, right-place situation. Greig, an accountant for an oil-and-gas company, was already several senior dogs into his calling—which is, namely, to share his home with a ten-pack of last-chance creatures likely to end up on a shelter blacklist. Edsel, except for his bulging eyes, a wayward lower fang, and his advanced age, was in better shape than many of Greig’s other dogs. In the current crew—Melvin, Fernando, Cat, Mrs. Woolworth, Raylene, Juanita, Willamena, Chalmer, Hertha, and Loretta—there are missing eyes, missing jaws, incontinence, and heart disease, among other infirmities; the average age is fifteen. (Greig also has a pig named Bikini, whose gravest condition is laziness, and a turkey named Cranberry, who is blind in one eye and has a disorder that makes him unable to hold his head upright when he’s scared or sleepy.) Until Edsel started having fainting spells a few years ago, he was as hale as could be. He was alert and expressive, with thick, wavy hair and a startled look on his face even when he wasn’t startled. A DNA test revealed that he was an admixture of Chihuahua and poodle, but he looked like no other dog in the world.