Kathie Savage of Hanover and her granddaughter, Shiloh Savage, 12, adopted their dog Squirt, a Jack Russell Terrier-Alaskan Husky cross, in June from Puppy Railroad Rescue in Hinsdale N.H. The following is an edited interview with Kathie.

Have you ever been on Petfinder.com? You need to try it. It’s addictive. You could sit for hours looking at all the animals looking for homes. You want to take every single dog.

They actually had a picture of (Squirt’s) sister. We went down looking for her, but when we saw him we just fell in love. When we picked him up, he was this little six-pound, all-head thing. He’s grown 21 pounds since we got him.

He comes to work with me every day and sits in my office all day long. We call him our stress-relief dog. If you’re having a bad day, you just go rub his head and he makes you feel better. The med students like to come in and visit with him. A lot of them weren’t able to bring their own dogs, so we all share.

There’s really been a change in our lives and the change in the office since he came. I sleep less, but I exercise more. I’m more calm. I’ve already lost weight since I got him. I was putting in a lot of overtime; I don’t put in overtime anymore. My priorities have changed a little bit.

I’m a great-grandmother to him. I have an only daughter who has an only daughter who has an only dog. It’s like having another baby. My whole life is just totally wrapped around again.

We first had him in a puppy training class but he was so distracted by the other dogs. Being rescued at six weeks old, he never really had the play time in the litter where he learned the proper boundaries. He’s really well socialized with people, but he didn’t know how to act with other dogs.

Now we just focus on having him learn how to play. He goes to a puppy play-group on Saturday, and he comes here several times a week. It’s done wonders for his confidence, and for my ability to actually watch him play so rough. He’s small, but he’s not afraid of anything.

If people could get along this way, wouldn’t that be great? Seriously. Look at them. They’re all different breeds, different sizes, different ages. They come from different situations, but when they get here, they’re just dogs.