Our best friends. They can be pets or working dogs; they race for sticks and balls or find survivors of disasters, and they are the subjects of some of the most amazing and touching stories:

Employees of the Albany post office adopted a stray puppy named Owney, and in his life he traveled hundreds of thousands of miles with the mail to places around the world

John Dignard, victim of a brain injury, introduced the concept of memory dogs by training a German shepherd help him

Rescue dogs working 9/11 found a few survivors, but the remains they uncovered provided closure for grieving families

Times were tough for Jude Stringfellow, but a bipedal puppy named Faith taught her to hope again

The Sica family’s golden retriever, Bullet, saved their three-week-old son from certain death from an undiagnosed heart condition

Stubby, a mongrel boxer mutt, became a hero on the front lines when his frenetic barking alerted sleeping soldiers to poisonous gas

Skippy, a hearing-ear dog, has given Kerena Marchant a taste of what freedom really means

Blue heeler cross Skidboot has made appearances on Jay Leno, Oprah and the Late Show with David Letterman to perform his amazing tricks

And so many more heartwarming stories.