On a freezing January night in 2009, a police officer found an abandoned dog at a gas station under the Garden State Parkway. The dog had managed to survive two days despite brutal weather and debilitating wounds on her legs. Barely alive, she was brought to the animal shelter in Bloomfield, where she faced a long road to recovery. However, this puppy, named Shelby after the Shell gas station where she was found, was destined to live an extraordinary life.

It began when Joe Dwyer peeked into her cage.    

Dwyer, a deacon at the Holy Family Catholic church in Nutley, had been a volunteer for years at the Bloomfield shelter. Though he loved all animals, he felt an immediate connection with Shelby. The intensity of it took him by surprise.

"As my visits continued, I became increasingly mesmerized by the shy, withdrawn pit bull with the melancholy look," Dwyer wrote in Shelby's Grace, his self-published account of their journey together. "She was a sweet soul."

Dwyer knew that the chances were slim-to-none of anyone adopting an abused, withdrawn dog, especially a pit bull who spent each day cowering in the corner of a cage. But Dwyer saw something special in her.  

He adopted her. Shortly thereafter, his intuition was confirmed by an incident at a local park.

"We took (Shelby) for a walk on a summer night," he remembers. "We saw an old man in a wheelchair and she walked over to him and put her head in his lap. It brought him to tears."

The dog's calm, empathic disposition made her a natural therapy dog, he realized. What he didn't know was whether she could withstand the rigors of therapy work after all she had been through.

Dwyer's first step was to get Shelby the medical help she needed to mend her injured legs. She endured several painful but successful operations before she was able to walk normally. During that time Dwyer and his family also provided the love and nurturing she needed to heal from her emotional wounds. She blossomed, becoming less shy, regaining her appetite, engaging playfully with Dwyer's other dogs. Because she was so young, she was able to recover from the trauma she had endured.

Encouraged by her progress, Dwyer decided to bring her to "Bright and Beautiful Therapy Dogs, Inc.," in Morris Plains. He remembers clearly how tough the evaluation process was for her.

"Someone comes up from behind the dog (that is being evaluated) and grabs them. They have to knock into the dog pretty hard with a wheelchair or walker or a cane, to see what their response is," he explains. Dogs are also required to obey a list of commands, as well as resist food, strange noises and jarring stimuli.

"They have to remain calm (in the presence of) loud noises. No growling or aggression of any kind is permitted."

To Dwyer's delight, Shelby passed the test with flying colors. Even now, two years later, he still feels the exhilaration of that day.

"Here's a dog that was given up for dead, and she can do such marvelous service and bring joy and compassion to people's lives," he says proudly.

Today, Shelby and Dwyer regularly visit hospitals, nursing homes, schools, and treatment facilities.  Once a month, Dwyer also brings Shelby to an Easter Seals facility for disabled adults whose mission, he explains in his book, "is in keeping with my own ministry of service to others."   

Earlier this week, Shelby and Dwyer visited several special needs classes at the Lincoln School in Nutley. Walking through the corridors, the children's excitement at seeing a dog at school didn't shake Shelby's habitually calm demeanor. Even when Dwyer led her into Ellen Wolf's 3-year-old class, the children's exuberant behavior didn't bother her a bit.

"This is a language-based program, so anything that stimulates language is what we aim for," says Wolf, smiling as she watches the kids interact with Shelby. "The children who have no affect, who are non-expressive, just seem to come to life in the presence of an animal."

Shelby's ability to calm people, and comfort those in distress, is described movingly in Dwyer's book. He eloquently details Shelby's poignant relationship with Jeff, a cancer patient and one of Dwyer's dear friends.

"Standing on her two hind legs, (Shelby) rested her front paws on the bed near his shoulders, settling her face on the side of Jeff's chin," Dwyer writes of the dog's astounding behavior with the terminally ill man. As Dwyer watched in awe, Jeff said to Shelby, "You made my life joyful, even in suffering. Thank you  . . . thank you. You are my angel."

"I have devoted the rest of my years to helping get dogs out of shelters," Dwyer states. "Shelby may be an unusual story but then again, she may not be. All dogs have gifts they can offer. Even dogs that don't make therapy dogs add love and compassion to the world."  

Joe Dwyer's book, Shelby's Grace, is available on Amazon.com and through Barnes and Noble online. Check his Web site for updates on Shelby and where she'll be visiting next.