The Dog That Helped a Family Heal During Cancer
Our American Stories
iHeartPodcasts
4.6 • 817 Ratings
🗓️ 9 September 2025
⏱️ 9 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode of Our American Stories, when Doris was diagnosed with cancer, her world changed, and so did her family’s. In the middle of uncertainty, they adopted Benny, a rescue dog with soft eyes and a calm, steady presence. As the days grew more difficult, Benny remained close, offering comfort without words and a sense of peace that medicine couldn’t provide. Our regular contributor, Stephen Rusiniak, shares how this unassuming pet became a quiet anchor during one of the hardest seasons of their lives.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:04.0 | What I told people, I was making a podcast about Benghazi. |
| 0:08.5 | Nine times out of ten, they called me a masochist, rolled their eyes, or just asked, why? |
| 0:15.1 | Benghazi, the truth became a web of lies. |
| 0:18.5 | From prologue projects and Pushkin Industries, this is Fiasco, Benghazi. |
| 0:23.6 | What difference at this point does it make? |
| 0:26.6 | Listen to Fiasco, Benghazi, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:33.6 | ...or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Lee Habib, and this is our American stories, and we tell stories about everything |
| 0:56.4 | here on this show, from the arts to sports and from business to history, and everything |
| 1:01.1 | in between, including your stories. |
| 1:03.2 | And our next story comes from our regular contributor, Stephen Rossettiak, who shares his |
| 1:08.4 | story from a terrific book, Chicken Soup for the Soul, My Very Good, Very Bad Dog, |
| 1:14.2 | which you can pick up at chicken soup.com. Here's Stephen about his dad's dog, Benny, and Benny's |
| 1:21.4 | relationship with his mom. It wasn't that he didn't like her. It was more that Benny just didn't care about her one way or the other. |
| 1:32.9 | The only reason he paid her any attention at all was because his best buddy did, |
| 1:39.1 | and that was only for a few minutes at dinner time. |
| 1:43.2 | Only then would Benny acknowledge her presence, |
| 1:46.0 | and then, only until his food was served. |
| 1:51.0 | Surprisingly, she didn't mind getting the canine cold shoulder |
| 1:56.0 | because she knew a sacred bond existed between a boy and his puppy. |
| 2:01.6 | Even if this one-year-old dog wasn't quite a puppy anymore |
| 2:06.6 | and this 69-year-old man wasn't quite a boy anymore. |
... |
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