I found her in my mid-30s. I had just run for Congress in New York City, and lost spectacularly. Utterly humiliated, I spent most of my time alone, glued to my couch. My now-husband, Nihal, knew just how to cheer me up: we piled into a rental car, and drove to a farm in Pennsylvania. I immediately knew she was the one: a beagle bulldog mix, seven pounds, all wrinkles and squat limbs and crooked...