11/11/2025
🇺🇸Happy Veterans Day🇺🇸
This is one of countless life changing and life saving stories from donated Heart of America Whoodles puppies to our Veterans. You are why we exist and its my honor to continue to provide life saving puppies to our brave men and woman.
How My Dog Saved My Life: A Veteran’s Story
On December 8, 2024 By wkilroy
This story is not entirely about my dog, but that is where the story begins.
Gunner is my dog, he is the newest addition to my family, and he is just over a year old. This means, he is still in his puppy years, but he is so much more than a puppy.
Gunner’s full name is AG. Yup, his full name is shorter than the name we call him by. If you are, or were, in the military, especially combat arms, you would likely be familiar with the term, “AG.” It is short for Assistant Gunner, which is a position on almost every crew-serve weapon system.
Puppy Gunner
When I was on active duty in the Army as an Infantryman, I served as part of an M60 crew. It was a crew of two soldiers who operated this powerful machine gun that greatly augmented the power of an Infantry platoon. When my unit deployed to Haiti in the mid-90s, I was the Gunner and Chris Fabyan was the AG. I don’t mean to brag, but we were a really good team. We did more than score perfect multiple times on qualifying courses. We worked as a unit, we anticipated each other, and we had each other’s back.
Fast forward to almost a year ago when I flew from Phoenix to St. Louis to pick up Gunner. He was part of a litter of Whoodles – a Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier and Poodle mix. He was a precious gift that was donated to me by the breeder, April Durham, who runs Heart of America Whoodles. Every few litters or so, April donates a Whoodle, free of charge, to a Veteran, so that it will help that Veteran as a trained and registered service dog. The dog is hand-picked for the service member, so when I first saw the litter of pups (I was the first one there that day) I only new that one of them was chosen for me.
On the flight back, I debated a name for this little guy that fit under the seat in front of me on the plane. He had been named Santa, as the litter came near Christmas, but that name was only his baby name. After randomly considering a few names, I decided his name had to be a part of who he is to me. He was going to be trained to be my service dog, almost always by my side, looking out for me, having my back, taking care of me, and working with me as a team. He was going to be for me what Fabyan was. He is my AG. Since the AG is a gunner in his own right, not just an assistant, he came to be called Gunner.
Gunner with Steve & Rita in Sedona
After many months of training with an amazing pack, PAWSS, that donated 100% of the cost of service dogs training, Gunner received his certification as a Service Dog just before turning one. He is with me and by my side almost the entirety of each day. On days when my PTSD is about to flare up he pushes against me alerting me. When I’m in a crowded area or in line for the cashier, he is between me and others to keep some distance.
The first step to fixing a problem is recognizing that a problem exists.
He is only newly certified, and just like humans, he doesn’t always get it right, and he can have bad days. During a meeting in my office last week, he was having a bad day. Normally, he would stand in front of me as we sat in an open room to discuss the recent and upcoming tasks. That day, he was climbing on me and even laid down on my lap. My coworkers and supervisor are wonderful, and didn’t say anything. I had him get down after a bit, but soon he put his paws back on my legs, and after a minute climbed back up on me. I felt a little embarrassed, but just held him … then the pain started.
I felt a sharp stabbing pain in my chest, just to the left of my sternum. I pressed on it to make the muscles calm down, but that didn’t work. I leaned forward. I stretched back. But that didn’t help either. I waited a few more minutes until the meeting was over, and went to my office. Again I stretched and pressed, and nothing helped. It was a little frightening, not to mention Gunner wouldn’t leave me alone. It was hard to stretch or move with him pressing up against my legs, almost enough to knock me over. But this behavior I knew. This meant he was alerting to PTSD or Anxiety. I did a quick self-assessment and realized the pain was what I heard a heart attack is like.
I spoke with a coworker, who used to work as an RN, who said I should go to the ER, and another coworker offered to drive me there. Thankfully, it wasn’t far as I work on the campus at a VA medical center. They got me in quickly (apparently that is what happens when you describe a heart attack and have a family history), and ran an EKG. The ER doctor was still concerned due to my family history, high blood pressure, and Gunner. I thought it was wonderful that she recognized what Gunner was saying as he still didn’t want to leave my side in the ER room even to lay down. He wasn’t behaving like a dog who wanted pets from everyone or to sniff around and find something to get into. He insisted on being next to me, and even wanted to be up on me. Thankfully, yet another coworker came to get him so the doctor could work.
The doctors there ran multiple tests trying to determine what was actually going on. I was so happy for their persistence to find an answer. I can’t remember who said it, but I remember someone saying they didn’t want to let me go until they knew I wasn’t going to have a full-on heart attack over the weekend. Without getting into the details, a team of doctors there were able to find out I had two coronary problems: One artery was more than 80% blocked and another was collapsing. They fixed both of these in one procedure.
So, you see, this isn’t necessarily about a dog, but without Gunner, I wouldn’t be able to tell this story at all.
This story is about God and how He put everything in place for me. I’ve often pointed to Psalm 23:4 to explain how God doesn’t take away the difficult and painful situations we find ourselves going through. Instead, He gives us the strength and perseverance to get through them by His power.
“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me”
Psalm 23:4
When we find ourselves walking through these difficult times, the point is not to complain about the difficult times, but to keep walking with courage because God is with us.
When the surgeons came into my room at the medical center and told me they felt my situation warranted an angiogram, and addressing whatever they found if they could, what I said was something like, “If you think this is the best thing to do now, then I’m good with that.” What I felt was more like, “Dear Lord, into your hands I commit my spirit.” It wasn’t until after the procedure that I realized how bad it was. It wasn’t until a couple of days later that my mom said, God prepared for this years in advance. She was completely right.
What I couldn’t see was that I had already started my walk through the valley of the shadow of death. When my eyes were finally opened to this through the actions of Gunner and my doctors, my only thought was to keep walking and trust in God. I’m not saying I wasn’t scared. Courage isn’t the lack of Fear. Courage is the act of moving forward in spite of Fear.
It was God that gave me that courage. It was God who prepared a way. It was God who surrounded me with great doctors and nurses. It was God who placed us in Calvary Chapel in Casa Grande, to be surrounded by a family of believers who went out of their way to help Rita and me. It was God who gave me a job working for the Phoenix VA Health Care System. It was God who gave me the PAWSS pack to train up Gunner. It was God who provided both the training and the dog, which I could not afford.
It was God.
And it was God’s plan that this particular time I found myself walking through the valley of the shadow of death (this hasn’t been the only time I’ve found myself in that valley), He decided by his sovereign grace that I was to have some more time here with my amazing wife, children, Gunner and my loved ones. However, there will come a time when that valley does not open back up to life. And when that time comes, I will be blessed to sing His praises in His presence. Until then, my life here is for Christ, and I thank Him for the blessings I have all around me.
