COLLIERVILLE, Tenn.—I am standing in the veterinarian’s office, trying hard not to look at a display jar holding a dog’s heart choked with heartworms. I don’t like looking at the vet, either.

The capable doctor feels Mabel’s back left leg, extends it, rubs it in strategic spots. She winces.

“If it were me,” he calmly says, “I’d give her nonsteroid pain pills and watch it. The ligament is not completely torn, and it doesn’t yet justify surgery.”

Ah, early Thanksgiving. I am thankful not to have to leave Mabel and her big eyes in a Tennessee clinic that she re...

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