Not quite three years ago, my dog became inexplicably lame. She suddenly couldn’t walk. It was December and I was at the tail end of finals as well as embroiled in endless holiday parties at the fine dining restaurant where I worked. I had left Joseph and her bff Jack at my then-boyfriend’s house when …

Sometimes you get a car where nothing goes right with it, the kind of car where every time you turn around there is something else wrong, some other thing that needs fixed or addressed or dealt with. You sort of want to drive the car off a cliff, or at least take it back to …