PTSD Service Dog Bella & Me our story of training and healing together

PTSD The story of how four legs & two legs helped to save each other

Bella came into my my in the End of October 2019 after we had lost our beloved King Charles Cavalier “ Puppy” who had been with us for many tears an was the heart of the family and the loss was a huge loss. At this time Marianne was undergoing counseling for depression and anxiety that had become too much to carry alone. However as this progress it uncovered a long buried history of family alcoholism childhood trauma, abuse from her first marriage and bulling from school. These revelations caused the walls of Marianne’s reality to come crashing down. Resulting in her hearing voices, having Hallucinations, night terrors, flash backs, anxiety, depression, and unable to cope with life. At this time her counselor went off long term sick leaving her high and dry with many months before group therapy was an option.

At this time we started to look for a new little dog for our family, we went to rescue places, but as fast as we looked they where rehomed and looked at puppies but did not want to put money into breeders hands at silly prices with all the inbreeding. It took months of looking every day on line ringing around to find we where too late . The I saw a very sad looking American Cocker Spaniel online for sale. Julian Marianne’s Hubby & Marianne went along ( only to look ) at a 18 month old pup . Well the house stank it was brown up the walls ( not paint) stank the floor was wet and sticky and a very thin sickly dog was shown to us with fur like a old goat skin rug. She was no way worth the asking price! So Yes we decided there was no way we would leave her in that hell and bought her!

First off she stank! We had to bath her & cut her collar out as it was grown into her collar & as she had spent all her life in a cage in the dark her feet had overgrown so a groomer friend trimmed her feet back. That was just day one. Trimming her fur we found a hole in her ear from bites from other dogs as well as wounds around her body. Poor Bella , well now the healing for us both can start.