May 11, 2009 4:53 pm US/Eastern
Perry Hall Dog Becomes Best Friend To Many
Reporting
Ron Matz
PERRY HALL, Md. (WJZ) ―
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Mango helps Katelyn get to school.
CBS
You know the old expression that a dog is man's best friend. All you have to do is head to one Baltimore County neighborhood to find out.
Ron Matz has more on a dog who loves children and shows it every day.
Mango waits at the door because she knows the school bus is near.
Katelyn and friends begin their morning walk to the school bus with their best friend.
"If you're sad, you should get a dog because it makes you happy and you'll do well in school," said Katelyn Blackwood, 8-years-old.
Mango is a Shih Tzu, Lhasa Apso mix, who means everything to Katelyn.
"She's like a little sibling to Katelyn and Katelyn loves nurturing her, feeding her and taking her for walks. She makes good company. You know they say dog is man's best friend. That's true," said Rosemary Blackwood, Katelyn's mother.
The Mango menagerie grows by the minute. The pied piper of Perry Hall always draws a crowd.
"Pets are tremendous. They're very valuable in a child's life because we have certainly seen it in Katelyn's life being an only child," said Devon Blackwood, Katelyn's father. "We've had Mango since she was a puppy. We thought she would help nurture [Katelyn], to teach her some independence and responsibility and things like that. It has dramatically changed her life and now she excels in school."
When it's time to say goodbye to Katelyn and friends, Mango gets sad because she wants to go to school, too.
"Well, when I walk out to school, I go on the bus and then Mango tries to go on the bus with me, too," said Katelyn.
Mango is a little over age two. The Blackwoods have had her since she was a puppy.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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