John and Daisy in Jacksonville

We arrived at John's house just as he and Daisy were getting home from work. He is still active in the Navy stationed in Jacksonville.  John enlisted in 1994 and had a tour in Afghanistan. He had a land based job and was a camera operator- as he put it "the eyes in the sky for the boots on the ground". 

When he got came home from his tour he suffered from PTSD that he acquired due to this land  based duty.  Most of his Navy peers couldn't understand what he was going through which isolated him even more. John had severe insomnia along with nightmares and terrible anxieties. The medications prescribed just made everything much worse.  His wife joined us and explained that things were so bad that they separated. His life started spiraling down to a point where he hit a brick wall.

Luckily a friend of his had received a service dog through K9s For Warriors and John started volunteering for the organization working with the dogs. He applied to them and they help him by evaluating and training Daisy, a Whippet Beagle mix found on Petfinder. John feels Daisy really saved his life and in time he was able to reunite with his wife and children. Here are two pictures of John and Daisy on graduation day at K9s For Warriors and another is that same day of John, his wife and Daisy.

Daisy is an extremely nurturing dog and allows John to use her as a pillow when he has severe migraines.   He told us that he belongs to a support group for those with PTSD.  Once during one of the group sessions another member of the group was starting to have a flashback and Daisy instinctively jumped on this man's lap trying to assist. Daisy is just an amazing dog.  He also said that he finds others at work sometimes stop by to see Daisy when they need some stress relief. 

Today John's life is completely different thanks to Daisy. When we got up to leave I asked John if he could sum up what Daisy mean to him and this is what he said, "Having Daisy as a service dog has broken down all the walls of PTSD and built a bridge to a new life".

We really loved meeting John and his wife and of course Daisy. So not only did Daisy save his life but brought a family back together. It doesn't get much better than that!