A Dog Called Hope

When Special Forces soldier Jason Morgan was left crippled by a mission that went wrong, battling depression and wheelchair-bound, his wife left him, and overnight he became a paraplegic father with three young boys to raise. He had lost the two very things that defined him: his military service plus his family and marriage.

As the pain spiked to unbearable levels, he agreed to have surgery to block it. But the doctors' promises that he would keep his mobility proved misplaced. After the surgery the pain was less, yet he'd lost the ability to move his legs.

It was then that Jason reached his lowest ebb. But it was then, too, that he heard about a not-for-profit call Canine Companions for Independence (CCI), one that specializes in providing service dogs to wounded veterans. Jason was convinced that his disability was serious enough to qualify him for a service dog and that CCI had just the animal for him.

Yet when he flew to their Oceanside, California, facility to meet his dog, Jason had no idea how much his life was about to change. So low was he that he wished that the airplane carrying him would tumble out of the sky and bring it all to an end. After meeting his black Labrador service dog, Napal, he would never do so again.

This is the story of how Napal enabled Jason to rebuild his life, to reconnect with his family and to find true peace against all the odds.