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that’s unmistakably a member of your own family. Uncle Harry’s nose, Grandpa’s eyes, the whole bit. Wouldn’t you be a little curious about how that baby got there? About who and where the parents were? And whether they were all right? Is that a little radical? If I’ve gone too far for you, take that raw sense of recognizing your own tiny relative for sale in a baby shop and tone down your feelings one small notch. Not all the way, just a notch. That’s why Betty asked about the papers.
    “No,” I said. I hadn’t even tried. “I just assumed she came from the Midwest or Pennsylvania or whatever.”
    Doesn’t everybody know this? Maybe not. The big puppy mill states are Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Pennsylvania.
    “Probably Missouri,” Betty said. “But not necessarily. Next time, see if you can get a look at the papers.”
    “I, uh, I wasn’t … Betty, I really didn’t know what to do. I mean, I still don’t.”
    “First of all,” she said firmly, “it’s not the end of the world. Most of the people who buy from a pet shop just don’t know where else to get a dog, okay? You’ve got to try and think that they aren’t bad people. They just don’t know any better.”
    Well, they damn well ought to
, I thought.
    Betty went on. “So what you want to do is go back there and be nice.”
    “I was nice this time,” I said.
    “What did you say?”
    “They, uh, assumed I was interested in buying a puppy.”
    “Jesus,” Betty said. “Why’d you …? Look, just go back there, say who you are, talk to them, and act nice. That’s what the affenpinscher people say to do, and they know about it. They’ve got a much bigger problem than we do.”
    In case you didn’t know, an affenpinscher looks something like a tiny terrier with the face of a really cute monkey. That combination of very small and very cute makes for a big problem: Puppies of large breeds rapidly enter a gawky preadolescence, but little bitty adorable balls of fluff have a long shelf life in a pet shop; a four-month-old Akita, malamute, collie, or chow is undoubtedly a
dog
, but a six-month-old affenpinscher, Maltese, bichon, or mini anything is obviously puppyish, which is what most buyers want. Consequently, it’s the toybreed people who have the giant problem with pet shops.
    “So I go back there and say I’m from Malamute Rescue?” I hated the idea.
    “Yes,” Betty said in a Kimi-like voice. “But act nice! Get them on our side. What you want them to do is put something with the papers. You have any of those booklets?”
    The booklet,
The Alaskan Malamute: An Introduction
, is what we mail to people who inquire about the breed.
    “Yes,” I said.
    “Okay, so put your name and address on it, or mine if you want, and go back there and try and talk them into leaving it with the papers. Or get them to pass along your name. That’s the best you can do at this point.”
    “But what if—”
    “Don’t buy that dog!”
    “I won’t. But what if—”
    “Look, how old is the puppy?”
    “I’m not sure. Maybe seven weeks, I think. She’s a baby.”
    Seven weeks is the minimum age at which a good breeder will let a puppy go—most insist on eight weeks—but all good breeders warn buyers not to let the puppy have any contact with strange dogs until four months, when he’s fully immunized. Pet shop conditions maximize a puppy’s chances of getting sick: A large and changing population of incompletely immunized puppies from different but mostly dirty places, all living together indoors, isn’t great, but it’s especially dangerous with a ventilation system designed for people, not animals. Dogs require many more changes of air per hour than we do, much more fresh air than a pet shop provides, especially a shopping mall pet shop. Cat lover, too, are you? Kittens are the canary in the pet shop gold mine because they’re the first animals to show upper respiratory diseases and ringworm. I