Some people are wildly allergic.

Some people have lives that are too chaotic to have pets.

And often, people just don't know they have a pet-sized hole in their lives.

I'd never thought about owning a dog until a friend-of-a-friend showed up to a party of mine in Williamsburg with a tiny chihuahua and mentioned she ran a rescue, would we like to foster some dogs, the backyard makes it easy?

I said, knowing the result, "If you can convince my wife (who's standing over there), we'll do it."

We ended up with two dogs of our own who came with us here, and I'm sure I at least would have gone mad this year without them.