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Foreword

by John O’Hurley

Dogs bring out the good in good people. No one told me that. It’s just an observation that I’ve made after wandering deeper into the canine world and witnessing the extraordinary impact that dogs have on the world around them. I have written before that I am a better person with a dog in my lap, and I believe that more today than when I first put that thought to paper.

But I probably would have missed that thought as well as the deeper meaning of how dogs enrich our lives had I not answered a phone call nearly ten years ago. The call was from one of the executives at NBC Sports who began the conversation with the words, “Woof, woof.” He went on to explain that they were taking a chance and developing a dog show to air on Thanksgiving Day called the National Dog Show presented by Purina. He asked if I would host the show along with a gentleman he described as “the most knowledgeable mind in the world of dogs.” That tag still applies to David Frei. I said yes to the offer to host and began a tremendous and enduring friendship with David and his wife Cheri. That friendship introduced me and my wife Lisa not only to a deeper understanding of the commitment and responsibility of dog ownership but also to a deeper and more spiritual purpose for dogs as companions in medical and emotional therapy.

Through his Angel On A Leash organization, I have seen firsthand the good that therapy dogs do—in the cancer wards and in pediatrics. A dog’s simple presence brings an irreplaceable moment of stillness and levity to the ill and the elderly. I have watched the hollow look of a sick child turn to a twinkle and smile when a therapy dog leaps on the child’s bed.

When a dog wags his tail, it is connected to his heart. When David tells these stories of the dogs he has known and the good that they’ve done, they are connected to his.

I leave you in good hands.