HARNETT COUNTY, N.C. — Four-legged friends can be part of your family, but they can also be a lifeline for veterans.

Shana Piller is an Army veteran living in Harnett County.

She enlisted in the Army in 2008 and was deployed to Afghanistan in 2012, but she came home shortly after.

She was diagnosed with PTSD and MST, also known as military sexual trauma.

"I didn't want to admit that something happened to me, that a brother in arms did something that he should have never done,” Piller says.

She got out of the military in 2016 but has struggled with anxiety and nightmares since leaving.

"I would not leave my house," Piller says. “It's been a consistent challenge just getting up and going out and not living in fear."

Piller says she has medicine if she wants it, but her service dog, Mac, gives her another way to calm her anxiety.

"I feel like a different person since I got him, he's been amazing," Piller says.

Mac is from a nonprofit called K9s for Warriors. It's based in Florida and pairs dogs with veterans across the country.