Ryan and K9 Goldy

My name is Ryan Kelly, I was in law enforcement for over 20 years. For The last 18.5 years I was a Deputy Sheriff with the St.Croix County Sheriff's Office. I am married to the love of my life Jenni. We have two kids, Hayden 22, McKenna 19. Ever since high school I wanted to be a police officer. I started my career in a small four-man department in 1999. I built a house and moved to the New Richmond area in 2001 and eventually was hired by the Sheriff’s Office. At the end of my FTO phase, I was involved in an officer involved shooting where I was forced to shoot. At the time I thought I was dealing with it the right way. I was only off of work for two or three weeks and then put back onto patrol. Back then there was not much for mental health or procedures of how to mentally handle an offer involved shooting. Soon after returning, I was put on solo patrol and responded to many incidents where I should have received help with my mental health. I was involved in two other officer involved shootings where thankfully I did not have to shoot. After the fact I now realize I was experiencing symptoms of PTSD, depression, and anxiety since my first officer involved shooting. During my long career, I would have lots of bad days, but I was really good at hiding it. I would always convince myself it would get better and it never did.
In May 2023, one of our deputies was shot and killed in the line of duty. At this point in my career, I was working in the office as our evidence technician. After the funeral we all returned back to work. I along with investigators were asked to ride along with the patrol deputies on their first shift back. Unfortunately, one of the first calls we went to was a man stabbing his wife in the state park. We were the first deputies, on scene, and while dealing with that situation, I felt my balloon pop, meaning I had had enough and the PTSD, depression, and anxiety was taking over. For a few months after the incident, I continued to tell myself it would get better and it only got worse. I finally came up with the courage to tell my wife of what was going on. I have been receiving help from multiple doctors and therapists. While receiving the help I didn’t realized how long I had been living with this nightmare. I recently retired and I’m in the process of receiving duty disability and disability retirement. When the process of me getting better started, my wife and kids insisted that I get a puppy to help me along in my healing. We picked out a puppy online from Coco's Heart Dog Rescue. Her name is Goldy. Goldy was a rescue from North Dakota and she is exactly what I needed for my mental health. It turns out getting Goldy has been one of the best decisions we have ever made as a family.
My plan with my situation is to be very public about it and not hide it. My goal is to assist anyone that needs help with PTSD. I do not want anyone to do what I did and bottle it up for almost 20 years until it’s almost too late. I plan on doing speaking engagements with my therapist and as soon as Goldy and I get trained, Goldy will come along. I also plan on using Goldy for events through Soldier’s 6. I can’t express how exciting I am to go through this journey with Goldy thanks to Soldier’s 6.