I’ve never believed much in instant karma — until this fall, when life proved how quickly things can turn. We rent a small, worn-down house with a strict “No Pets Allowed” rule, so when my 10-year-old son Mason came home holding a shivering puppy he’d found behind the school dumpsters, I knew we were in trouble. But we couldn’t leave the little guy, so Mason named him Buddy, and we agreed to care for him temporarily.