Give Fearlessly Story: Meet Service Dog Jacob

via www.baltimoresun.com

When Debbie Catena wakes up at 6:25 a.m., it’s not the beep of an alarm clock that gets her attention, but a nudge and a sniff from her golden retriever, Jacob.

A childhood illness left Catena with 60 percent hearing loss in her right ear and completely deaf in her left ear. Jacob is a hearing dog that was paired with Catena, a 55-year-old Ellicott City resident, through Fidos for Freedom, a nonprofit organization based in Laurel that provides service dogs, hearing dogs and therapy dogs to residents of the Baltimore-Washington area. Catena is unable to hear her alarm most mornings, but Jacob makes sure she is up in time to catch the MARC train to Washington for work.

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