When a fire captain stopped retiree David Ginsberg’s car to give him a friendly lecture on the dangers of balding tires, he spotted Chula, an outgoing golden retriever, in the backseat. Ginsberg told him that Chula was a trained community therapy dog.

“The fire captain said, ‘Why don’t you share her with our department?’” said Ginsberg, a health science teacher who retired 30 years ago from PS 261 in Brooklyn.

Ginsberg agreed, and with that, Chula — Spanish for cute or pretty — added another set of clients to her duty roster.

“I call her ‘Lady of Hope,’” said Ginsberg, who lives in Asheville, North Carolina, and has trained the dog, now nearly 3 years old, since she was a puppy. “She gives hope to anyone and everyone wherever she goes.”

Ginsberg and his pup are familiar faces in the Givens Estates retirement community where Ginsberg and his wife, Martha, live. Ginsberg and Chula greet people at the wellness center and visit with retirees in assisted living. The campus life enrichment director is working on setting up spots on campus where Ginsberg and Chula can have “office hours.”

After the encounter with the firefighter, he and Chula began visiting Station 5 in South Ashville, the fire captain’s firehouse, to support the first responders. People who meet Chula fall in love immediately, Ginsberg said. “She’s such a drawing card,” he said.

Ginsberg, who taught in New York City for 27 years, recently trained to volunteer alongside Chula for the Asheville school district’s Read to Succeed program for students in grades K–4. Ginsberg and Chula worked with kids following Hurricane Helene in September 2024, when Givens Estates staff and residents organized a makeshift school for the children of working parents because schools were closed for weeks. Ginsberg said Chula, who spent a lot of time with the children in a moment of upheaval, “brought hope and happiness into their lives.”

Owning a therapy dog is a 24/7 job, and Ginsberg and Chula always make themselves available to those in need. Ginsberg, 82, said all the training and hours of daily walks with Chula keep him physically and mentally fit.

Ginsberg and his wife decided to adopt and train a therapy dog after losing their beloved pit bull mix in 2021. They chose a golden retriever because the breed is known for good temperament, intelligence and loyalty.

Chula began her training at the Duke University Canine Cognition Center in Durham, North Carolina, when the couple lived in nearby Chapel Hill. She received a therapy dog certification from an Asheville program, and she and Ginsberg are working on her AKC Canine Good Citizen training. Ultimately, they want to join the Alliance of Therapy Dogs.

With the time, financial commitment and sacrifice that comes with owning a therapy dog, Ginsberg said he would not necessarily recommend it to others. “But everyone should have respect for our canines because they give us unconditional love, communicate with us, and they’re there when we need them, no matter what,” he said.