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aul Giarrusso rarely cries. But the 59-year-old
from Rhode Island wept after his ex-wife decided that he
could no longer see their two dogs, Marox and Winnie. “It tor-
tured me,” he says. “In our whole divorce, that was the only
thing that could hurt me.”
For nearly two years, Giarrusso fought for custody of the
pets in family court and then in the state supreme court,
spending about $15,000 in legal fees. “I went through hell,”
Giarrusso says. The fight was worth it, he says, when a judge
in April 2019 said Giarrusso could have the dogs on Tuesdays
and Wednesdays every week. When Giarrusso finally saw them
again, Marox, a 16-year-old miniature Italian greyhound, and
Winnie, a 14-year-old dachshund- Chihuahua mix, covered
him in slobbery kisses.
“These dogs are like kids,” says Giarrusso, a high school and
college sports referee who has no children. “They’re every-
thing to me.”
They’re also everything to his ex Diane Marolla, whose
custom- made shower curtain is a grid of photos of the dogs and
whose license plate reads Marox 1. “I will compromise every-
thing,” she says, “but I won’t compromise these dogs.”
The custody dispute was unusual enough that it attracted
local media coverage, but divorce attorneys say these fights
are becoming more common as state courts confront divorce
laws that fail to recognize that in ever more homes, not every
crucial bond is between humans. In the past three years, three
states have changed their divorce statutes to treat pets more as
by melissa chan
When couples divorce,
changing laws may
decide who gets to keep
the family pet
P
PHOTOGRAPHS BY SAGE SOHIER FOR TIME
