‏Hercules Rossi‏

Hercules was rescued 2004 in Las Vegas when he was just six weeks old. Hercules was a destructive puppy during his first nine months of life and was almost adopted to a family when Shorty moved from Las Vegas to San Francisco. Shorty decided not to give Hercules away, and the rest is history!

After some intense training, Hercules became Shorty's closest companion. When Shorty injured his back, Hercules was trained as his second service animal; Geisha is his first. Hercules' training as a service animal and entertainment dog was a complete success for Shorty.

On his first day as a service animal, Hercules traveled by train. From the start, he acted as if he'd doing this for years. Switching trains, Hercules encountered his first challenge. The train system had delays due to technical problems; this led to overcrowding. Hercules completely was surrounded; as he could do nothing, he sat still and slept the entire ride.

Upon arrival at the train station, Hercules and Shorty caught a San Francisco cable car. Once again, Hercules acted as if he'd been doing this for years. Following his cable-car trip, Hercules and Shorty said their prayers at a local church, and then they had play time in Washington Square Park. Then, they went to lounge and drink wine with old "paisons." Once the break was over, they took a mini bus back to the train station to return home. Not bad for a day's work!

Hercules does all sorts of service-dog work and also attends charity events. He's also a performer having been in film, commercials and television. With chaos and excitement frequently surrounding him, Hercules always is pleased to be around people.

Hercules has become the number one service animal in Shorty's group. He has traveled all over the country and promoted himself in a positive light...even thought pit bulls usually have such a bad rap. Hercules certainly has established himself in the LA scene.