Page 859 - Total War on PTSD
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Bayley. She was in the same place I was. She wasn't ready to move on. She had just lost her Marine...she had lost her soul. She wasn't eating or drinking...she was basically refusing to live. She would just poop and pee on herself. She was basically a six-month-old puppy who had given up on life. Well, I knew how to work with animals and remembered working with one particular animal when I was younger that was just afraid to leave his crate. The trainer had a dog who wouldn't leave its crate and if it did it would get really violent with anybody. So, the trainer would go into the crate with the animal and spend two or three hours. Eventually he got to the point where the animal would eat from his hand, and he just progressed from there. So, I kind of used the same sort of concept. I went into the crate with Bayley. With me being paralyzed, she knew I couldn't move my legs, so she'd try to move me around. She'd still go potty on herself, so I'd go potty on myself and she'd try cleaning me up. So, we built a bond together. She would try to nudge her food to me. She actually started to have a desire to live because I had a desire to live. Finally, someone from the organization asked me if I was aware of what Bayley was doing at night to which I of course said No. What it was on the video is that she would let herself out of her crate, open the door and setting off the alarm, and going out to the training area when me and her were training at to grab the blanket that smelled like me and then brought it back to her bed in her crate to lay with it. There was one night that she did it no less than nine times. After the fourth time the security company had to come. After five times they had to charge the business for the security calls and it was $500 for every time they had to come out.
So, the organization told me that I needed to take Bayley home. Plus, they said she's working again. They said remember the other day when she was aggressive with you? I said I was
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