I’ve long been interested in the lives and fate of rescued dogs, the spirit of empathic kinship, and the relationships between rescued dogs and their humans, so when I learned about Carol Mithers’ new book, Rethinking Rescue: Dog Lady and the Story of America’s Forgotten People and Pets, I couldn’t wait to get my hands and eyes on it.1

I’m thrilled I did because my learning curve was vertical as I read about the seminal work of Lori Weise, known as the Dog Lady, who spent decades caring for people in poverty and the animals who love them. Carol “boldly confronts two of the biggest challenges of our time—poverty and homelessness—in asking the question: Who deserves the love of a pet?” I’m pleased she could answer a few questions about her riveting book.

When I met Lori Weise in 2012, I knew nothing about the humane world but was spellbound by her stories of working with unhoused dog owners in Downtown L.A. Then I witnessed her cutting-edge and very successful effort to keep dogs out of the shelter by helping their financially struggling owners. I knew there was a story there, and it came into focus when I realized that Lori had begun working around the same time that the no-kill/rescue movement took off. Her efforts both paralleled and countered that well-intentioned movement, revealing its flaws—in particular, the failure to include the poor and people of color.

I’ve always been interested in the stories of extraordinary women and the intersection of movements with the wider culture. (In my first book, I looked at the way a psychotherapy cult’s rise and fall reflected changes taking place in America.) Lori is brilliant, complex, and a person scarred by childhood experiences whose drive to help human-dog families gave her a path to re-empowerment. And as I learned more about the no-kill/rescue movement, I realized that while it absorbed huge amounts........

© Psychology Today