The Refuge

“The feeling you get when you enter a box for the first time is something you really remember for a long time. It’s… stunning.» The narrator of this story faces his midlife crisis in an original way: rather than getting involved in sport or (over)consuming, he chooses to become... a volunteer at a dog shelter. This is the starting point of this column, in which he humorously shares the daily life of his new colleagues and especially of their four-legged residents. Each day that passes allows him to measure, and us with him, how endearing they are. Through short thematic chapters, José Fonollosa paints a very accurate picture of the dog shelter he has come to know and love, lacking in resources but overflowing with passion. Beneath its cheerful exterior, Le Refuge poses with great finesse and acuity the sensitive question of the treatment reserved by our societies for domestic animals, a subject which mobilizes more and more citizens.