31-07-2025
- General
- Wall Street Journal
The Life-Giving Power of a Dog Named Zinc
In a city like New York, where the ground is always shifting under your feet, nothing says you belong more than having a dog. The simple morning ritual of taking your furry ball-and-chain on a leash from apartment to park or dog run is the surest way (perhaps even more than a stroller) to distinguish yourself from all the transience and anonymity by firmly stating that 'I, in fact, live here.'
Ten years ago, when I first moved to New York because I'd fallen in love, an 85-pound shepherd-lab mix called Zinc helped me make the city my own. He had been rescued from a kill shelter in the South by two pious older women who ran an organization called 'A Paw and a Prayer.' Zinc, it could be said, was part of my dowry.
