I am a longtime dog lover and have always had dogs.  But until I learned about Custom Canines Service Dog Academy, Inc., in Madison, Wis., I didn’t know just how much of a difference a service dog could make to my life.
 
My journey to adopting a service dog has been a long time in the making. I spent 12½ years in the U.S. Army.  I joined in 1980 and spent time stationed at Ft. Bragg, N.C, and Ft. Sill, Okla., before I went through the qualification course for the Special Forces (also known as the Green Berets) at Ft. Bragg.  

After graduation, was sent to 10th Special Forces Group at Ft. Devens, Mass. That is where I deployed to Operation Desert Storm and Operation Provide Comfort.

My team was in Northern Iraq on a mission to find safe places for the U.S. Air Force to drop food, water and blankets to the Kurdish people who had fled their homes after their leader, Saddam Hussein, attacked them with chemical weapons.  We were on a path that was thought to be safe when I stepped on a land mine and went flying through the air.  After I landed I checked my right foot, which hurt the most, and saw it was gone.
 
I was medically retired from the Army in October 1992 and moved to Phoenix with my wife, Renee, and my daughter, Ashley.  I was hired by the city of Mesa (Ariz.) in January 1993 and attended the 18-week Phoenix Regional Police Academy.  I was the first person in the country to attend the Police Academy at entry level with a prosthetic leg.  I retired in November 2013.

Once I retired I started to feel a lot of anxiety about everything I had been through and what the future was going to be like.  I don’t think I let myself think about what had happened in 1992 and just dove into being a police officer.  I could put my feelings on the back burner while I was enforcing the law and chasing bad guys.
 
I started playing with the Wounded Warrior Amputee Softball Team in March 2012.  One of the players had a service dog and I always played with her and gave her lots of attention.  I talked to him about how he got his dog and how I could get one.  I thought a service dog could help me with my anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.

I was put in touch with Nicole Meadowcroft, president of Custom Canines. Nicole went above and beyond anything I ever expected to get me a service dog.  I flew to Madison at the end of August 2015 and met my soulmate (besides my wife!). The moment Hazen and I met we bonded as I have never bonded before with a dog. Hazen is an awesome black Labrador Retriever.

He is incredibly smart and the love between us has enhanced my life so much.  He goes everywhere with me and brings joy and laughter into my life.  He has helped me to get over most of my anxiety. He seems to sense if I am getting tense or anxious and will cuddle with me or lick me or bring one of his toys for me to play with him.  Hazen has been a godsend and I can’t thank Nicole and Custom Canines Service Dog Academy enough.

So, why am I writing to you about all of this?  It is because Custom Canines Service Dog Academy needs your help.  Custom Canines Service Dog Academy is a non-profit organization, which means the dogs are donated and the trainers are all volunteers so that, in the end, a person like me who needs a dog doesn’t have to pay thousands of dollars for important and needed assistance.  In fact, all dogs are placed at no cost to the families.
 
Please consider “pawing it forward” to help.  You will be fulfilling the dreams of dogs and humans alike.  To ­make a tax-deductible donation via PayPal to this life-enhancing organization, go here.
 
Thank you,
Todd

Custom Canines Service Dog Academy cannot exist without the generosity of people willing to support their life enhancing organization.  What they do for disabled service veterans is so positive and life changing.  It is priceless to be able to give a service dog that will provide the help and the love that disabled vets so desperately need.  

Please support this wonderful organization. 

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