My wife is a professional photographer [4] and animal lover.  Almost a year ago she came home from the animal shelter in Los Angeles [5], where she volunteers, with a 16-yr-old dog who she named "Sunny."  Sunny was what's known as an "owner surrender" as opposed to a stray dropped off at the shelter.He

r humans got tired of her.

At the time Sunny was a sad case.  She panted non-stop and couldn't control her bladder.  At first I couldn't beleive Lori brought Sunny home, being so sick it seemed to me that being put to sleep might be more humane than this.  But for some reason Sunny instantly found the sweet spot in my heart.  A trip to the vetinarian confirmed that she maybe had a few weeks left so we decided to make them the most comfortable remaining weeks in her life.  During these few weeks Sunny began to rapidly heal.  She came back to life!  It's been almost a year and she's still going at 100%.  She brings so much joy to our lives.  Like most mature dogs she's well behaved, house broken, and great with our cats.

Lori was so touched by Sunny's predicament that she wrote a blog about her [6] and other older dogs surrendered to shelters by their owners.  Since these dogs are older they are overlooked, rarely if ever adopted and certain to die a lonely death.  Lori's blog post struck a cord and she started the Silver Hearts Project [7] to bring awareness about these old souls and the advantages of adopting them.

Her touching blog post became wildly popular and TODAY.com [8] contacted Lori to do a feature on their website.  Surprisingly it became a Top Story.  Click here to read it in detail [9].  So popular on the TODAY Show Facebook page [10] that NBCNews.com [11] picked it up and it went viral on their website and Facebook page [12] as well.  By day's end NBC Nightly News [13] called hoping Lori would be willing to be interviewed for a segment on their Weekend Edition which aired, Saturday 7/20/13.  You can watch video below or  click here to watch the segment on-line at NBC News. [14]

Her segment proves that offering what you really love to do as a way of being of service has the greatest impact.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news [15], world news [16], and news about the economy [17]