In this narrative, Dr. Brian Deady reflects back on a time when a four-legged friend entered his life and instilled in him a sense of empathy he didn’t know he lacked. The story is read by Troy Acres.Dr. Deady is an emergency physician in Vancouver, British Columbia.He wrote a Humanities Encounters article published in CMAJ called "The unbearable rightness of two-ball fetch."To read the article: www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.190213-----------------------------------Music: Evening Fall Harp by Kevin MacLeod, YouTube audio library-----------------------------------For more stories like this one, get your copy of CMAJ’s Encounters Book. This anthology of prose and poetry of some 100 Canadian authors including Drs. David Goldbloom, Shane Neilson, Allan Peterkin and Monica Kidd, has been specially curated and includes a study guide. shop.cma.ca/products/encounters-----------------------------------Subscribe to CMAJ Podcasts on Apple Podcasts, iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Overcast, Instacast, or your favourite app. You can also follow us directly on our SoundCloud page or you can visit www.cmaj.ca/page/multimedia/podcasts.