Dogs With Jobs - Season 4, Episode 6 - Bonita, Lily, Wheely Willy

Bonita, a two-year-old border collie herds cattle on the 80 thousand acre Chico Basin Ranch in Colorado. Bonnie has to keep 300 head of cattle under control as she herds them five miles across the parched landscape to new pasture. The trek is treacherous. It’s 100 degrees Fahrenheit by ten o’clock in the morning and last year, Bonita’s owner, Jeremy Gingerich, lost one of his herding dogs to the heat. In the scorching heat, there are cactus needles that get in Bonita’s paws and rattlesnakes.
When people move out of their home due to toxic mold, it’s up to Lily, an eleven-year-old Havanese, to tell them if it’s safe to go back. Lily’s owner, Sue Bulanda has trained her to detect spores of dangerous toxic mold found in homes, hospitals and schools. The toxins in the mold can damage the nervous system, the immune system and cause skin irritations, asthma attacks and respiratory infections. Toxic molds thrive in dampness. When there’s extensive water damage, the mold is visible, but it often grows in hard-to-find spaces behind walls. That’s when the toxicologists call in the dogs. With one of the best noses for toxic mold in the business, little Lily is a match for canine colleagues several times her size.
Wheely Willy: Celebrity Therapy Dog (Long Beach, California)
Willy, a Chihuahua, was abandoned in a box on a Los Angeles sidewalk. His back was broken, his vocal chords were severed and he weighed almost nothing. Deborah Turner rescued him from a local animal hospital. She fitted Willy with a set of wheels that gave him mobility and independence. So many people were interested in Willy’s story, Deborah turned it into a children’s book. Now Willy is an inspiration to disabled children he and Deborah visit across the country.