The Heartwarming Story of How a 'Failed' Service Dog Touched One Family

Meet Pesto.

This black lab was always destined to help others. He just didn't take the path most people expected him to follow.

Pesto, a black lab, struck a connection with a family after meeting them at a library. (Image source: Screen grab via WXIA-TV)

Before he was scheduled to go to school to become a service dog, Pesto — then a puppy — became a regular at the Aurora Public Library in Colorado. Kimistry Howard and her two disabled boys, who were being homeschooled, were also regulars.

Pesto, a black lab, struck a connection with a family after meeting them at a library. (Image source: Screen grab via WXIA-TV)

One day they all met. Howard says she felt a connection with the dog like no other.

"This beautiful puppy came into this room. I said I never believed in love at first sight, well, I had love at first sight," she told WXIA-TV. "It's a love story from beginning to end and it's not over."

[sharequote align="center"]"It's a love story from beginning to end and it's not over."[/sharequote]

The two boys, one with autism and the other with a rare spinal disorder, fell in love with Pesto. They were inseparable.

Pesto, a black lab, struck a connection with a family after meeting them at a library. (Image source: Screen grab via WXIA-TV)

But, the black lab would eventually have to say goodbye to the family, leaving them behind for training to become a certified service dog.

And, while the boys missed him, they always wanted the best for Pesto.

"We wanted him to be placed with a phenomenal human being that would love him as much as we've seen him be able to love an entire library of people," Howard told WXIA-TV.

Pesto passed all of his tests with flying colors. Howard was expecting to receive a call, saying he'd been placed with a loving family, but that's when something surprising happened.

"Then it wasn't that call it was a different call," she said.

Pesto was not going to be a service dog, after all.

"I couldn't believe he didn't pass, but they said he didn't graduate," Howard said.

Pesto, a black lab, struck a connection with a family after meeting them at a library. (Image source: Screen grab via WXIA-TV)

Instead, the black lab that had touched Howard's family would return back to Colorado. Two years later, he comforts Howard's boys, helping them with day-to-day tasks.

Howard told WXIA-TV that she is convinced Pesto intentionally failed so he could be reunited with her family.

[sharequote align="center"]"It's so beautiful they say he failed."[/sharequote]

"It's so beautiful they say he failed," she said. "What I'm convinced is Pesto made a choice."

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