COOPERSBURG, Pa. – Service dogs save lives, and a Lehigh Valley woman who’s dedicated her life to making sure veterans and first responders get the life-saving partnership they deserve is one of our Lehigh Valley Heroes.

Heather Lloyd has been caring for animals ever since she can remember, raised on a farm in Quakertown.

“My best friend was a duck and then I had a pony and then I had chickens,” Lloyd says.

She carried that love with her as she pursued a career as a physician’s assistant.

And after the birth of her two boys, she left medicine and went back to her first love- opening a pet business in Coopersburg.

16 years later, she says a chance encounter with a veteran and his dog at a homeless shelter would be the beginning of a new venture.

“He came here every day to learn everything there was to make that dog be his best friend, to be publicly accessible, non-soliciting, non-disrupting- the way a service dog should be,” explains Lloyd.

That’s when Tails of Valor was born. A nonprofit that trains service dogs and pairs them with veterans and first responders.

Falling in love is easy around here. but it’s more than just puppy love- it’s the kind of love that can save your life.

“I did lose my purpose because law enforcement is what I knew. I was good at it. I thrived at it so when that gets taken away and you don’t know which end is up- you lose your purpose,” says Whitehall Police Officer Jason Mertz.

On September 9th, 2017, Mertz was shot in the line of duty with a shotgun from just 10 feet away. It almost killed him and survival was a struggle.

It was a long road to recovery and 6 years later, on the anniversary of the day he was shot, he says his family convinced him to visit Tails of Valor. He put in an application for a service dog that same day.

“We’re thick as thieves. I mean I tell her all my deepest, darkest secrets because I know they can’t get out. But I mean she goes everywhere with me,” Mertz says of his service dog Holland.

“It’s not a cure but it’s a non-medicinal way to help me mitigate the troubles that I have in life and it’s phenomenal,” Mertz explains.

Since the beginning, 75 dogs have graduated from Tails of Valor. That’s 75 chances for a new lease on life.

“Through the eyes of unconditional love of the dog- unconditional love,” Lloyd says, tearing up.