A reader writes:

When my mildly-allergic-to-dogs son went to college, we adopted Bear, a husky-shepherd rescue, and Pumpkin, a corgi-pug rescue. Bear was three and stable as a rock; Pumpkin (six months) had had a more traumatic puppyhood, but settled down as the beta dog in our pack. I purposefully got two dogs because I understood that dogs could get depressed (especially single dogs in a household where the dog was left alone during the day), and I thought meeting their needs as social animals might help prevent that.

Bear died suddenly when he was five, from hemangiosarcoma. Pumpkin was in the house when he died. For three weeks afterwards, she would just go out onto the deck and stare forlornly off in the distance.