Tina loved her job. She didn’t want a fallback or an exit strategy, that job was supposed to be the rest of her life. That changed when she was diagnosed with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, a diagnosis that sent her to a hospital in San Diego and started her down a path she’d never imagined: learning how to live inside an injury that had rewritten everything.
Early on, Tina felt like the life she’d built for herself was slipping through her fingers, leaving her with dark, bitter days; too anxious to leave the house, angry at a reality she hadn’t asked for, self-conscious about a disability that changed the way she saw herself. Life had changed for her. And a recommendation from her doctor to get a service dog would help her change it again – for the better.
At first, it didn’t seem like an option. As an active duty service member, she couldn’t have a dog, let alone couldn’t keep one in the barracks. That’s where Puppy Jake came in. The team didn’t just point her toward resources and step back. We stayed with her through it, walking her through what it actually looks like to build a working partnership with a dog from the ground up. FoxyFaith is the reason that partnership worked.
A service dog doesn’t let you stay still. They make you get up, get outside, take care of something other than yourself. And that forced motion, that routine became a new breath of fresh life for Tina. Grocery store trips, public spaces, the things that used to feel impossible, now happen with FoxyFaith at her side.
What’s stayed with Tina most, though, is that Puppy Jake never treated her like a case to close. Between the team and the other veterans she’s met through the program, she’s found something like a second family. “We’re a bunch of misfits,” she says, “and we all fit together.”
