We met with Leander at River Legacy
Park in Arlington Texas. Once again we
were blessed with a 70 degree day under beautiful blue skies. We keep waiting for our luck with
the weather to end and it keeps on going! This remarkable veteran received his service dog from K9s for Warriors in Florida. It was a
two day drive from Jacksonville to the Dallas/Fort Worth area but after meeting
him, we were so grateful we had decided to make the trip!
Leander was in the army
17 years, going in directly after high
school ROTC. He was stationed in
Washington, D.C. where he worked closely with a couple presidents. He then left the military, worked in law
enforcement before reenlisting because he felt that part of his life was
incomplete. During that training period,
he was diagnosed with leukemia. Fortunately it went into remission after he finished chemotherapy, and a few months
later he was deployed to Iraq. He suffered
severe brain damage and leg injuries when an IED blew up the Humvee he was in. He was at Walter Reed a long time, also going
through ten knee surgeries- and still suffers from severe headaches and PTSD.
Leander's PTSD has left him with sleeping issues and a lot
of anxiety. He told us that he did whatever shopping he had to if possible at
night time to avoid people and crowds. Then
he found out about K9s for Warriors from Richard and he applied for the program
and was able to be paired with Sierra. Sierra is a beautiful small golden retriever that was surrendered by her
owner that had to relocate to New York from Florida. Luckily she ended up with
K9s for Warriors and was in their training program- later finding her way to
Leander. Sierra has been a real blessing to Leander who said she has "given
him back his freedom." I asked
Leander how he knew she was the right dog for him during his training with
Sierra in Florida. He said that the
third night there, she woke him from a nightmare. She wakes him from nightmares, will circle
to warn him when he is under too much anxiety and helps him manage other symptoms.
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Today Leander works
for Delta airlines today and is the first employee with a service dog. Watch my FB page and we'll post the wonderful
public service announcement that Delta has made about this partnership. He also travels as much as he can promoting
K9s for Warriors. Here is Leander and Sierra during their training in Florida
and one of them at Ground Zero in NY.
He told me about the time after they came home to Texas when
she saved his life. Sierra does not
bark- at least hardly ever. But one day
when he and Sierra got home from work, he started to feel ill. Sierra started barking and barking at him and
he remembered what Brett, the trainer in Florida had told all the Veterans
training with dogs. Brett said to listen to your dog. So he called his girlfriend (now fiancé) and
told her about the strange way Sierra was acting. She came over, found Sierra still barking and
by then Leander was really feeling sick and she took them to the emergency
room. Leander at age 41 was having a
heart attack. Amazing- so Sierra has literally saved his life and is
continuing to change his life every day.
Sandi Capra, development director for K9s For Warriors, suggested that it was well worth the two day drive to Dallas to meet these two amazing
Veterans. She was so right!
