For Sophie, my sweet golden pup, who I rescued eleven years ago. She’d been treated horribly, to the point we couldn’t touch her without her showing her teeth. But we hired a “dog whisperer” to teach us how to earn her trust. It took a year of me rubbing her every night and telling her how beautiful she was for her to let me touch her backside without growling. Persistence and love paid off. I can’t imagine not having her sweetness in our family. She was rescued and is loved so much by our big, boisterous, roll-on-the-floor family after a very tough beginning.

There may not be pirates sailing the seas every day in the 21st century, but there are still devils out there who abuse the weak. May we all become rescuers in our own ways.