The underdogs : children, dogs, and the power of unconditional love / Melissa Fay Greene

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Juke -- 4 paws for ability -- Connor -- Karen & Piper -- Lucy -- Casey & Connor -- Karen & Ben -- Logan -- Hero dogs -- Iyal -- Shelter dogs -- Prison dogs -- Lucy & Jolly -- Casey & Connor II -- Logan & Juke -- Eddie Hill & Timber & Dante & Keeper & Jiminy -- Micha & Casey -- Iyal & Chancer.

Karen Shirk, felled at age twenty-four by a neuromuscular disease and facing life as a ventilator-dependent, immobile patient, was turned down by every service dog agency in the country because she was "too disabled." Her nurse encouraged her to tone down the suicidal thoughts, find a puppy, and raise her own service dog. Karen did this, and Ben, a German shepherd, dragged her back into life. "How many people are stranded like I was," she wondered, "who would lead productive lives if only they had a dog?" A thousand state-of-the-art dogs later, Karen Shirk's service dog academy, 4 Paws for Ability, is restoring broken children and their families to life. Long shunned by scientists as a manmade, synthetic species, and oft-referred to as "Man's Best Friend" almost patronizingly, dogs are finally paid respectful attention by a new generation of neuroscientists and animal behaviorists. Melissa Fay Greene weaves the latest scientific discoveries about our co-evolution with dogs with Karen's story and a few stories of suffering children and their heartbroken families.

English.