When I met Bo in December of 2018, he was almost ten years old, and he had heartworms, an upper respiratory infection, a UTI, arthritis, hearing impairment, questionable vision, and possibly a touch of dementia. I brought him home as a foster without a second thought—and without so much as a phone call to my then-fiancé, Matt.

We had discussed the possibility of fostering, but with the holidays coming up, followed closely by our wedding, we thought it would be better to wait until things had settled down a little bit. I’d gone to the shelter that day just to learn about the process, but fate had other plans. (Matt blamed himself—he knew better than to send me there unsupervised.)

Bo, some mix of Akita, Labrador, and chow chow, was in rough shape and, though nobody wanted to say so at the time, we wondered if he might be coming to the end of his life. But soon we realized we were witnessing an incredible transformation. We think he’d lived an outdoor-only life before he came to our house, so the comforts our spoiled two-year-old lab, Oliver, took for granted were entirely new to him. In fact, the first time we turned on the TV that week, he went into a full-on panic. But as we got Bo accustomed to a healthy diet and a soft bed and loaded him with joint supplements for his arthritis and antibiotics for his other ailments, he grew from an insecure, aloof old man into an energetic pup who was eager to play with his younger brother and always wanted to be close to me. It was like we were watching the years fall off of him.

Once we finished Bo’s heartworm treatment and restored him to health, it was time to start looking for adopters. But by then I was convinced that Bo was meant to be a part of our pack, and we made him an official member of our family in April, shortly after our wedding.

His gray muzzle and misshapen joints give away Bo’s old age, but when I think about how much younger he seems now than in those first weeks, I’m amazed all over again by the transformative power of a few creature comforts and a little love. And my heart breaks all over again for Bo and the many others who are written off because they’re broken or different or even just a little older. These dogs have so much more to give; all they need from us is a chance.