Oh weepy so early in the day.

Yeah, that choked me up.

It sounds like Izzy is some kind of doggysattva. I'm not entirely joking.

Damn you, gaspode, for making me cry.

Thank you, gaspode.

Jon Katz has a way of writing the same story over with different dogs. His animal stories often include something about wondering how is dog was going to do in a situation, and then realizing the dog was fine, and he needed the training. I just read my first book by him which was a gift. It was a nice set of vignettes of his farm life, and includes a story of how Izzy came to his farm. It also has a story very similar to this one about one of his labrador retrievers, and how he helped this old woman through her physical therapy. If you read the Amazon review comments on his books, you'll find that he stirs up a lot of emotion, especially on "A Good Dog...". Some people love them, others vehemently hate him. The guy is a writer, and I'm leaning towards him heavily embellishing things that might, or might not have happened.