Why Carol Kane Recommends Rescuing Older Dogs If ‘You're a Slightly Older Person’ (Exclusive)

Carol Kane calls rescuing an older dog “a wonderful thing.” 

“The last two babies I had were quite elderly when we got together,” Kane, 72, tells PEOPLE exclusively: Johnny, who she had for years and who sadly passed away six months ago, and before that, Dainty. 

The latter pooch, the Oscar nominee recalls, “was so old and blind and weak when I got her. And everybody said, ‘That's a hospice situation.’ Well, she lived another solid five years after we got together.”

Kane’s advice to prospective dog owners is to be open to all options. “It's a wonderful thing if you feel like maybe rescuing an older dog,” she says, “because a lot of people don't want them, because they want a quote-unquote, ‘cute puppy.’ But a puppy's not going to stay a puppy, so that's a bad idea anyway!”

Plus, there’s what Kane calls “a lazy thing about getting an older dog… They already mostly have been housebroken and they're not going to teethe.”

Nor do older dogs require as much physical activity as puppies. “If you have a young dog, you really have to walk them long and hard, they need a lot of exercise,” explains Kane. “And if you have an older dog and you're” — she pauses to find the correct wording — “a slightly older person, there's a rhythm that fits very well.”

An older pup “really needs a welcome and is so grateful for it,” the Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt star continues, adding, “and you can keep them alive for a lot longer than they would've been kept alive. And they just are so sweet.”

Kane, who in June was photographed receiving smooches from Selma Blair’s dog, loves pooches of all shapes, sizes and ages. While she’s still grieving Johnny’s passing, it may soon be time time to get a new canine companion — who may again be on the older side. 

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Pooches, Kane concludes, are “so resilient, and a little love and care goes a long, long way. They've done those studies on the chimps, that if they are deprived of physical touch when they're young, what happens to them. Dogs are like that — and so are people.”

Kane stars with Jason Schwartzman in the new Nathan Silver movie Between the Temples, in theaters now.