LANSING, MI — When Tom Jones took his family on a summer vacation to Higgins Lake, the hotel nearly turned him away when he tried to check in with a service dog. Staff tried to switch his room, he said, and told him he couldn’t take the animal outside.
Jones, a U.S. Army veteran from Livonia who served in Iraq with a field artillery unit, doesn’t have any physical disabilities that visibly explain his need for a service dog.
But like many vets who have “seen the worst that man has to offer,” Jones said he has a hidden injury: post-traumatic stress disorder.
Baxter, a service dog he was paired with through a non-profit in February of 2014, has played an important role in Jones’ re-integration upon return from Iraq, but he explained that observers do not always understand the animal’s role.
“From putting his head in my lap when I’m anxious, to waking me up from nightmares. He’s the companion I need. My co-pilot. He goes to work with me everyday,” said Jones.