The underdogs

"...tells the story of Karen Shirk: felled at age twenty-four by a neuromuscular disease and facing life as an immobile, deeply isolated and depressed, ventilator-dependent patient, she was rejected by every service dog agency in the country as 'too disabled.' Her nurse encouraged her to raise her own service dog, and Ben, a German shepherd, dragged her back into life. 'How many people are stranded like I was' she wondered, 'who could lead productive lives with a service dog?' A thousand dogs later, Karen Shirk's service dog academy, 4 Paws for Ability, is restoring hurting children and their families to life"--Dust jacket.