I’ve heard it said that the word history really means His Story.

God’s story.

He’s the one who puts our lives together for His glory and for the good of those who love Him.

Sue and I were on a jet flying red-eye from Boston, Massachusetts on the East Coast to San Francisco, California on the West Coast.

It was July of 2012, several weeks after we unexpectedly lost joyous little Katie.

Sue was so lost without a Hearing Dog! First Levi had broken through her sound barrier, followed by Amazing Grace, then Katie came, and Sue’s world of silence had opened up for almost 25 years. She was dependent on her dogs to signal sound and suddenly, without one, she found herself withdrawing back into the silence.

But Sue was never one to let the grass grow under her feet, and she had immediately recognized her need and began the search. Now we were headed to Canine Companions for Independence in Santa Rosa for an interview process where the trainers would assess Sue for a Hearing /Service dog.

Although CCI has campuses in every region of the US, at that time their only hearing program was in their home base of Santa Rosa.

On the last day they put Sue through the paces with a couple of different dogs. One was a black retriever that had a gregarious personality like Katie. She danced across the room. Then they brought out a small sturdy yellow lab. As Sue slowly walked, loosely holding his leash, the little yellow fellow concentrated to pair with her ponderous pace. Sue exclaimed excitedly, “I feel rooted with him!”

I knew she had connected with that dog.But, it was just an interview process. And she had met several different dogs.. and we needed to wait until the actual classes later in the year, when she would be carefully matched with a suitable dog whose temperament and skills would blend with her temperament and needs.

Nonetheless, Sue was quite convinced in her heart that Rodney was “the dog”!

One rainy day back at the cabin in Vermont, I randomly and absentmindedly googled the words dog, Rodney, CCI / Canine Companions when, to my surprise, up popped this blog! My heart did a double take. One look into that serious puppy face with those steady deep brown eyes and I knew it was the same Rodney.

And then goosebumps rippled on my arms. May 13th was the birth date of the Rodney Dog in the blog and May 13th was the same date that we had lost little Katie rather unexpectedly just a few months earlier. Rodney turned 2 years old the day that Katie had taken her final breath. It was exact to the day – 2 years after Rodney took his first breath in this world!

I knew I would not dare to show Sue this blog or tell her about that little detail! She would have been absolutely convinced that it was a God-thing and that Rodney was going to be her dog and I could not bear to watch her be utterly heartbroken!

So from July to October when we flew back to the CCI campus for the classes, I kept that information tucked away!

And the rest is history!

Sue, Rodney and I with Rob and Erin Clark, the couple who raised Rodney for the first 18 months of his life and who gave him a foundation in basic obedience and socialization. This photo was part of their goodbye to him the day he graduated and officially became Sue’s Hearing/Service Dog. You can read part of their story on the blog