Dogs Inc. gives clients more than help. It gives them hope.

It’s touching to see the interaction between McKenzie Hanlon and her dog, even if it is via a computer screen. “You want to meet CJ?” she asks on a Zoom call. Hanlon speaks haltingly, certain words garbled, just one of several disabilities the 25-year-old endures — the result of six brain surgeries, two strokes and a seizure disorder. On cue, CJ, a beautiful yellow Lab with soulful eyes, puts her forepaws in Hanlon’s lap, lifts up and licks her face. 

Just about everyone with a dog loves their dog, but Hanlon and CJ have a deeper relationship. Where to begin? For starters, CJ is always by Hanlon’s side, even sleeping in bed with her. CJ is a guide dog, a support dog, a companion dog and, at least once, a savior dog. “About a year ago, we were walking in Greenbrook Village and we came to a crosswalk,” Hanlon recalls. “I heard the flow of traffic and that’s when I go or stop. This one person was driving so fast. CJ backed up. I froze. The person never slowed down.”

Disaster averted. 

Hanlon received CJ four years ago from Southeastern Guide Dogs, which in May officially changed its name to Dogs Inc. to better reflect its extensive reach and breadth of services. Founded in 1982 as a small guide-dog school, the Palmetto nonprofit has grown into a national resource with a sterling reputation that reaches beyond the United States. Dogs Inc. meticulously raises and trains guide dogs for people with vision impairment, service dogs for veterans, and companion dogs for folks with trauma disorders. The organization provides the canines and training for the recipients — all at no charge. 

Matching a dog with a person in need is a painstaking process. That was definitely the case with Hanlon, who, besides having 80% vision loss, has problems with balance and significantly diminished use of her right arm. Hence, she required an extra-special dog. Hanlon says she met 15 pooches during a vetting process. 

“McKenzie has to harness her dog, put the leash and collar on, just using one hand,” says Kayla Cook, a senior instructor and alumni advisor for the Guide Dog Program at Dogs Inc. “So, CJ has to have the patience to just stand there and wait until McKenzie is ready to go.”

That’s just one of this dog’s special set of skills. Hanlon says she has fallen twice during her partnership with CJ. “She knows how to brace, so I can use her to pull myself up,” Hanlon says.

Life’s been tough for McKenzie Hanlon since birth. She was born 12 weeks early at 2 pounds, 2 ounces, but rallied enough to live an essentially normal childhood in her hometown of Birmingham, Alabama. The headaches began at age 14. The doctors wrote migraine prescriptions. One night, when she was 17, the anguish became unbearable. 

Photo by Lori Sax

Within a day, McKenzie was on the operating table at UAB Hospital for the first of her brain surgeries. The surgeons had to remove a 45-millimeter aneurysm — about the size of a small orange. “The doctors didn’t know if I was going to make it through the first surgery,” Hanlon recounts. She did, of course, but then came the strokes, which caused paralysis in her right side, speaking difficulties and vision loss.

Countless doctor’s appointments, more brain surgeries — the last was in 2017 — and intensive physical therapy ensued. Hanlon had to relearn how to walk and grew frustrated with using a cane. “Five times, it got stuck in my ribcage and I fell over it. I had to go to the emergency room,” she says, a tinge of frustration still evident in her voice.

So, Hanlon applied for a guide dog “somewhere in Florida.” In 2018, she moved with her mother and stepfather to Lakewood Ranch, unaware that the Southeastern Guide Dogs campus was only 20 minutes away. She waited two years to get the call. It was during the organization’s Match Day in September 2020 that Hanlon found out CJ would be her new guide dog. The young woman was ecstatic. But it wasn’t a matter of the two just heading home. They went through three weeks of training. “The classes are grueling,” Cook says. “We ask a lot of you. But I could see that McKenzie was a go-getter.”

It’s not an overstatement to say that the arrival of CJ dramatically reversed the course of McKenzie Hanlon’s life. “I was, uh, depressed, and I was working through therapy, but I didn’t have that push,” she says. “I was overcome with ‘what-ifs?’ I was in a dark place.”

Hanlon’s relationship with CJ opened her world and changed her outlook on life. “CJ gave me the security I needed to move on to greater things,” she says. The veil lifted to the point that Hanlon matriculated at Southeastern University in Lakeland. She loved it but stayed only three semesters. Hanlon says she left because the college came up short on making accommodations for her disabilities and her guide dog.

Hanlon would like to return to school one day, but it’s not a high priority at the moment. Asked if she hopes to get a place of her own, she replies, quickly and sharply, “Yes!” and with a shy smile adds, “But I’d have to be close to mom.”

In February and March, Hanlon did an internship with Dogs Inc., rotating through various departments on campus. Those six weeks deepened her connection to the place, the mission, the dogs. Hanlon hopes to land a regular job there. “I love the atmosphere, the positive outlook. It’s so generous and kind,” she says effusively of Dogs Inc. “I would do anything. It’s my dream job.”

Here’s to hoping that McKenzie Hanlon’s dream comes true.