Whatever hardships we have, reaching out to lighten someone else’s burden allows alchemy to happen. My partner’s father, at almost 90 years old, recently passed on. While he was still living on his own, caring for his feline friend Cat Ballou, my partner visited daily after work, so the hole in routine loomed large. The family car was a welcome connection to his life and journeys, but when it arrived in our driveway, we needed to find somewhere else for the wheels we had. Selling felt cold. But donating for an organization that honored his values felt like a way to find the gold lining in this time of transition. Enter Canine Companions, a national organization that enhances the lives of people with disabilities by providing highly trained service dogs at no charge to the recipient.

The group is celebrating fifty years of serving its mission, and now has six regional training centers. This month, like so many young people, canines graduated from their specialized educations, with the added reward of a new person welcoming them to a long-awaited partnership. Over 8,000 lasting and beneficial relationships have begun here. If your summer reading tastes lean to fiction, let me recommend veterinarian Nick Trout’s story The Wonder of Lost Causes, a tribute to his daughter's experiences with Cystic Fibrosis, along with her dog-like insistence on living in the moment.

Even before these match-ups happen, some remarkable prison puppy training programs provide inmates with affirmation of a life purpose that shares benefits forward to someone else in need. If your summer reading tastes lean toward non-fiction, my mother pointed me toward Craig Grossi, a Marine veteran who brought a stray dog home from Afghanistan—introduced to readers in his first book, Craig and Fred : A Marine, a Stray Dog, and How They Rescued Each Other. The second book, Second Chances, tells about their work in a Maine prison, and about the ways a service dog puppy program there changes how selected inmates come to think about their lives.

With so much gratitude to dogs and to authors and to people who dedicate their lives to serving causes greater than themselves…and if you'd like to lift a glass to that, here's another 50-year anniversary to celebrate (while also honoring the late Pope Francis and the stray dog he befriended who sat by his side in the Vatican during his last moments.)