Stoga started Puppies Behind Bars in 1997, combining two of her lifelong passions: dogs and philanthropy. Prominent in charity circles Stoga was a member of a city commission helping inner teens find employment when her sister mailed her a newspaper clipping. The article described an Ohio penitentiary where prisoners reared pups for the visually impaired. Stoga knew she had found her calling. But there was a problem: Every guide dog school in New York that Stoga contacted wanted their puppies brought up in loving families not by convicts in a cell block. "The schools thought it was a stupid idea," Stoga recalls.
