Dog Dad

Is there a cure for the "sad sickness? That's what Topher Brophy calls the feeling he has lived with as long as he can remember. As a lonely only child "on the spectrum," a shy high schooler cursed by acne, a college student working hard to be accepted as a "frat boy," and a young man traveling to exotic destinations in search of wisdom and inner peace, Topher never feels he belongs anywhere or to anything. Too shy to keep a friendship, he battles feelings of rejection and loneliness, always wondering why just living in the world, which seems easy for others, is so difficult for him. He tries various remedies, even becomes a sports freak in the hope that being strong will make him happy and get him "accepted." With barbells, ropes, and bands, he works out morning till night to keep the sad sickness at bay--till an injury makes even that impossible. Nothing changes anything. The sad sickness is always there. Then Rosenberg comes into his life. Dog Dad tells how becoming a dog dad changes everything for Topher Brophy.