The One Who Never Left: How My Husky Helped Me Survive My Divorce

When I look back on the hardest chapter of my life, there’s one constant that carried me through all of it, my husky, Koda.

People talk about emotional support animals like it’s some official designation, but Koda didn’t need paperwork to be my anchor. He was the only one who saw every moment I didn’t post online. The days I couldn’t get out of bed. The nights when the silence in my apartment felt heavier than the heartbreak. And somehow he always knew exactly when to curl up next to me, or when to nudge me outside so the world didn’t shrink to the size of my thoughts.

Funny thing is… I never even wanted a husky

Before Koda, I pictured myself with an easy dog. Something low-maintenance. Something chill.
Then I met a fluffy, blue-eyed husky puppy who looked right at me like “Good luck keeping up.”

If you know huskies, you know exactly what I mean.

The drama.
The backtalk.
The diva energy.
The opinions about everything.

Koda grew into all of that and I fell in love with it.

He’s loud when he wants attention. He throws tantrums like he’s auditioning for daytime TV. He sasses me when I’m not moving fast enough. And somehow, that exaggerated personality became one of the things that pulled me out of the darkest period of my life.

You can’t stay sad for too long when a husky is yelling at you to go outside.

Divorce will shake you. A dog will steady you.

When my marriage ended, the ground under me completely shifted. I was blindsided, confused, and suddenly living a life I didn’t recognize. But to Koda, none of that mattered.

He didn’t ask for explanations.
He didn’t want to analyze what went wrong.
He didn’t make me feel like I wasn’t enough.

He just needed me and that responsibility gave me structure when everything else felt chaotic.

He got me out of the house on the hardest days. He kept me moving, literally pulling me forward on walks when my mind wanted to stay stuck in the past. And when I packed up my life and moved across the country, he walked into our Denver apartment like, “Great, new territory to explore.”

He kept me soft when life tried to harden me

Heartbreak can make you want to shut down the parts of yourself that care deeply. But Koda didn’t give me that option.

When I didn’t feel lovable, he curled up beside me.
When I felt lost, he stood at the door ready for another adventure.
When I doubted myself, he looked at me like I hung the moon.
When I cried, he pressed his forehead into my chest his way of saying, “I’m here.”

He didn’t fix the pain, but he made it survivable.
He reminded me that connection still existed, even when the person I thought I’d spend forever with was no longer in the picture.

Because of him, I rebuilt a life I actually love

Divorce forced me into a new chapter, but Koda made that chapter worth stepping into. He’s been with me through new states, new relationships, new heartbreaks, new adventures, new versions of myself.

He grounded me when I didn’t know what stability looked like anymore. He taught me that love can be consistent. And he kept me open to the possibility of something better, even when the past felt heavy.

I didn’t rescue Koda. But he absolutely saved me.

Healing didn’t happen in one moment — it happened in hundreds of tiny ones. Most of them were outside, somewhere between Denver trails and Pennsylvania woods, with a husky trotting ahead of me, glancing back to make sure I was still coming.

And I always was.
Because he kept me moving forward.
Because he never gave up on me.
Because he showed me, in the purest way possible, what unconditional love feels like.