Thursday, June 7, 2012

Me and CNN

I know it's not all about me (not all the time, anyway) but if you look closely, you can see my gleaming black coat in these CNN video clips. How, you ask, did I come to be on national television and internet videos? It's all because of the work my wonderful trainer, Mary Cortani, has done to match rescue and shelter dogs with military veterans.

In 2010 Mary started an organization called Operation Freedoms Paws. Her idea was to match up dogs to military veterans with visible and invisible combat wounds, then teach them to work as a team and eventually pass the service dog test. The Saturday morning classes I attend are geared toward these service-dogs-in-training, so I've been doing extra lessons with them. They work hard! They have to be extra-focused on their people so they know when to help and what to do without even being told.

At Saturday class a few weeks ago, there was a man with a camera even bigger than Janet's, and a lady talking to the people. They came all the way to Gilroy to visit because Mary was being given a "CNN Heroes" Award.

Pretty exciting stuff for a stray pibble from Berkeley, right?

http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/07/us/cnnheroes-cortani-veterans-dogs/index.html

4 comments:

  1. Wow, that video put tears in my eyes. What a tremendous thing she is doing. Just wonderful!!

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    1. It's amazing to see photos of these vets from 6 months ago and compare them to how they look now. Mary and the dogs have made such a positive difference in their lives! Glad you watched and felt the impact, too.

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  2. Thanks for sharing this video clip. It brought tears to my eyes to see what special work you're involved with. Wow!

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  3. So many tears....and for our little girl, Clover to be part of this with her mom, fills my heart with joy! Biggest hugs and smooches...Love, Auntie Ferne

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