The New Custody Battle

PAUL 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 tortured 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 everything 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