Dogs

That familiar tickle in your nose. The watery eyes. And the way you fall in love with every dog you meet, only to spend the next hour reaching for tissues. Honestly, I’ve been there. More times than I can count. For years, I thought owning a dog was off the table. My allergies were bad enough that even ten minutes with a friend’s Labrador had me sneezing for days. And a 2018 study in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology found that about 1 in 5 people worldwide deal with pet allergies. So that’s a lot of dog lovers stuck on the sidelines. ...

Honestly, the first time I heard it, I thought Mabel was choking. She was a 10-month-old Lab mix, full of energy and bad decisions. One minute she was fine. The next, she was making this sound—a dry, hacking, almost goose-like honk, that sent me running across the room. I flipped her mouth open, checked her throat, half-convinced she’d swallowed a squeaker toy. Nothing there. That was my introduction to kennel cough. And I learned fast that this sound, as terrifying as it is, is usually not an emergency. ...