Deacon, a white German shepherd, was skin-and-bones, tied up in the Texas sun, when my sister saw him and offered to take him home with her. In her house, he was ungainly, knocking over things, with no training or manners. She kept telling me that she didn't want to keep him, but she wanted to make sure that whoever adopted him would really love him and treat him well. When I visited last month, I realized that she's not giving him up. In two cars, we took him and her St. Bernard to a vet who works out of an RV in a grocery-store parking lot. We huddled outside while the dogs got shots, plus medication to prevent fleas and heart worms. I'm looking forward to universal health care for pets because the costs are high these days even when the vet is working out of an RV.