SHERMAN, Texas (KTEN)—Blue began his journey as a stray, picked up by Sherman Animal Services. Now, he's traded the Lone Star State for the Empire State, and is serving Monroe County, NY, as a therapy dog for the sheriff's office.

After spending a month in the Sherman Animal Shelter, Blue, called "Jackson" at the time, was passed on to a lab rescue group in the north Texas area.

"If we have a full-blood, looks full-blood lab, we reach out to rescues that specialize in their breed, and that way they can get out faster," Sherman animal control officer Sierra Comstock said.

Blue's next stop: K9s for Freedom, an organization that trains dogs to be critical incident response dogs, who provide comfort for victims after disasters, among other tasks. Part of the training includes detecting changes in the human body that indicate stress.

"We want you to find that person that is behaving or putting off the hormones, the electrical impulse, the heart rate, the chemical changes that the body puts off," founder Janeen Bagette said. "We want you to be attracted to them first."

After six months, it was time for Blue to start his career. The Monroe County Sheriff's Office applied for a dog through K9s for Freedom, and fell in love with the lab.

Now, he spends his days hanging around the sheriff's office and making people smile in the way that only a dog can.

"He literally just goes from bureau to bureau and different places in the department, different buildings, literally just putting smiles on people's faces—which is really hard this day and age for law enforcement, with everything that they see," MCSO Health and Wellness Director Kim Butler says.

After only a few weeks  with the department, they say Blue fits right in.