10 Reasons Adopting A Shelter Dog Will Actually Rescue You

1. You’ll rediscover the glorious outdoors—like falling leaves and mud puddles and squirrels—and the health benefits of walking every day.

2. Your face will never be more clean and shiny from all the sloppy kisses!

3. You can ditch the dangerous plug-in blanket during cold winter nights and still have toasty toes!

4. You will always know when the neighbors come to visit—and the postal worker, UPS driver, recycling collector, uniformed sellers of Girl Scout Cookies, and missionaries.

5. Your circle of friends will expand by the hundreds as everyone out for a walk stops to ask the age and breed of your puppy and to give you potty-training tips.

6. You’ll have opportunity to negotiate new rates for your cable service when you call to ask for a replacement remote—your old one having become a chew toy.

7. Your new best friend will sit with you when you read, sit near you when you have your morning omelet, sit next to you when you’re watching the kids play at the park, when you’re sewing, watching Breaking Bad re-runs, making popcorn, finishing the dishes, writing a letter. Sometimes, your new best friend will be snoozing.

8. You’ll be able to refine and improve those long dormant ball throwing skills that have faded since sixth grade softball.

9. You will be reminded of the simple joys that offer so much pleasure but that we tend to dismiss like hanging your head out a moving car window, eating ice-cream from a spoon (or the floor), rolling on earthworms in the grass, barking at rabbits just outside the fence, and jumping into the car in anticipation of our next adventure.

10. You’ll know every day, every time you walk back in the door, that you are loved, loveable, and needed—and that enthusiastic, unbridled affection waits for you each time you leave. You now have a home full of life and love.