Several of the golden retrievers visiting Thousand Oaks are with Lutheran Church Charities (LCC) K-9 Comfort Dogs, an Illinois-based nonprofit started 10 years ago after yet another mass shooting. After a shooter killed five students at Northern Illinois University, handlers brought their therapy dogs to the campus to ease stressed-out students, and it worked very well.

The nonprofit has grown from four to 130 comfort dogs that live in 24 states. All of them and their handlers receive 12 to 14 months of training to be calm, starting when the dogs are eight months old. All the dogs are golden retrievers. Not only is this breed lovable by nature, LCC President Tim Hetzner told the Huffington Post after the June 2016 mass shooting at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, but “because of their fur, they leave a little of themselves with everyone they meet,” he said.

The K-9 Comfort Dogs were originally invited to Thousand Oaks to console people affected by the Borderline massacre. Ministry director Richard Martin, who lives in Northbrook, Illinois, got a phone call from California Lutheran University—one of the victims, Justin Meek, was a recent graduate—soon after the shootings. “Within four hours we had teams on planes and in cars making their way here,” Martin told the San Gabriel Valley Tribune.

The dogs arrived from Chicago, Colorado, Las Vegas and Napa Valley in time to attend a candlelight vigil at Cal Lutheran that night for the shooting victims.

When the Woolsey Fire began in nearby Westlake Village, the comfort dogs’ invitation was extended. “We were on campus the last two days in the midst of that pain and suffering, and we were then directed to the shelters to give those evacuated comfort,” Miller told the Tribune.

Jacob, a four-year-old golden retriever deployed to Thousand Oaks, has previously worn his “Please pet me” vest after the mass shootings in Orlando, Las Vegas and at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

“You can’t pet a dog without smiling, no matter how much pain or sadness you’re feeling,” Jacob’s owner, Sharon Flaherty, told the Tribune. “If we can bring that love to people, that’s mission accomplished.”

The travel costs for Jacob and the other K-9 Comfort Dogs are covered by donations. Here’s hoping that Congress will enact stronger gun laws in the not-too-distant future, so these dogs won’t have to travel to yet even more areas affected by mass shootings.

Photo Credit: Getty Images

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