Angelo, a retired racing greyhound, was a man about town. Before we adopted him, he was adopted and returned once and fostered by five different families through the Central Texas chapter of the Greyhound Adoption League of Texas. After he joined our family, it seemed like everywhere we went, we heard someone say, "Is that Angelo?" He had really made an impression on everyone he met during his three years in foster homes.

His mellow yet gregarious personality made him the perfect dog to bring out and about, so once we adopted him, he regularly joined us at restaurants, on shopping trips, and on neighborhood walks. Whenever we would take him to a dog park, though, he would spend the whole time walking from one human to another looking for attention. In other words, he was more of a "people-dog" than a "dog-dog." Because of this trait, we signed up to volunteer at a local nursing home through Therapy Pet Pals.

Angelo was a huge hit with the residents, and it wasn't unusual to hear that he was someone's only visitor. This was heartbreaking, but it validated our efforts. I made Christmas cards with Angelo's picture for the residents, and we saw them proudly displayed in almost every room for the rest of the year. At first, I thought that the residents would want to chat a bit with me when we came to visit, but that was rarely the case. They simply looked forward to Angelo's head resting on the edges of their beds while they petted him and shared their stories with him. He could connect instantly with these tired souls in a way I could not.

In late 2018, our human baby was born. Angelo immediately took to her and would rest his head gently next to her sleeping body whenever he could. He had a gentleness and ease about him that was nothing short of therapeutic. We lost Angelo to cancer when our baby was eight months old, and were heartbroken that she wouldn't grow up knowing him. But we still show her pictures of him, and one of her first words was "puppy." We will hold his memory dear for the rest of our lives.