Following Saturday's devastation in El Paso, first responders are getting a little support from San Antonio.
Facility dogs Rudy and Chanel traveled west on Sunday to provide comfort to the hospital staff and first responders tending to the victims of the El Paso shooting.
GALLERY: Dogs from Methodist Healthcare in SA provide comfort to El Paso victims
Police say a man opened fire in an El Paso shopping area on Saturday. 20 people were killed and two dozen were injured.
"Our first responders and hospital staff see so much every day and never really have an opportunity to really process that during their shift," Brandon Miller, a handler and EMS Relations Manager for Methodist Healthcare, told KENS 5.
That's where Rudy and Chanel step in. The two dogs work for Methodist Healthcare and specialize in providing comfort to first responders and hospital staff dealing with high-stress situations.
"A lot of them say it changes the course of their day when they get a chance to interact with her [Chanel] and play with her, especially after a bad situation," said Miller.
The dogs will be spend the next few days in El Paso area hospitals and first responder stations. This is the first major deployment for the dogs.
"After an event like this, it's hard to process everything that's going on and it's hard for people to understand that just even one patient that goes from EMS to the hospital touches hundreds of people in its own way, and when it's an incident like this, and it affects your community, it's even more personal and harder to deal with," Miller said.
"They're fairly instinctive in picking up a person in crisis, so you actually see them head straight for the person that's displaying the most distress; it's pretty amazing to watch," Lee Stanphill, another handler, added.
A gift the two dogs will continue to give over the next few days as they reach places in the heart no human can.