One of the little news items that cheered me up somewhat, lately, was a story about a woman veternarian who salvaged some mutts from the animal shelter and subjected them to some training to make them into a special kind of 'therapy' dogs.  She has placed eight of 'em so far, and it appears that when a combat veteran has a "bad" time (flashback or such), the dog 'knows' to go to the human and lick his face or somehow indicate sympathy (of a canine sort, I guess).  I say, God bless the lady vet, and the mutts!