Well, my parents are divorced but my dad has got 5 dogs. Yeah.. 5 of 'em. But at my mother's house, where I live I haven't got a pet. I kinda miss not having a dog around you.
When the ex-wife turned 40, before she was the EX-wife, she disappeared for a whole day. Eight hours, just gone. No cell phone, no "be back at xx o'clock." Just gone. Turns out she drove three and a half hours to an animal shelter to rescue dog scheduled to be put down the next day.
Fast forward three years. She's crazy now. Not quirky, but full on crazy. She moves out, but chooses a place that won't take pets. Not "oops, they don't take pets;" she doesn"t want a place that takes pets. Like I said, full on crazy. She starts shacking up with a new guy (poor slob had no idea what he was in for) and he has allergies so the dog can't move. He eventually flees, and the ex-moves again. She finds a new guy, but he already has two dogs and doesn't want another. The kids live with me and the dog goes to my daughter.
Fast forward three years, the daughter moves to Utah. She finds a great place to live, but "oops, they don't take pets."
So now I have a dog named Ruby. A shelter mutt. Another child of divorce. She sits on her bed next to me while I'm working, and whenever I look at her she wags her tail. She tells me when the mailman is across the street, or when the neighbors start their car, or when another dog is taking a walk in the street out front. She sits in the sun and surveys the neighborhood. She makes sure that $^#(# cat next door doesn't take a dump on the lawn.