My dog Deuce is a shaggy black lab mix rescued from a kill shelter in the southern part of the United States. I took a leap of faith, adopted him and paid the fee to have him transported to New England without having ever met him. 

I have been a guardian companion to dogs my entire life but had never before encountered a puppy with his level of energy and extra-terrestrial enthusiasm for human companionship. It was if he were two puppies rolled into one. 

It didn’t take long for me to realize that this high energy and very social puppy was desperately in need of a task or mission. I decided that signing up for training and certification as a therapy dog might be just the career he needed.