LEXINGTON, Ky. (FOX 56) — Recovery centers are filled with tales of people struggling with drug and alcohol addiction. But one center here in Lexington features “tails” of a different kind — the kind that wags.

Whether they walk on four legs or two they all know a certain kind of pain.

“Every time I pick up a drink, pick up a drug. just this never-ending, vicious cycle comes along, and I end up in jail or I end up locked up or end up in the rehab facility away from the ones that I love,” Brandon Franklin, a Stable Recovery attendee said.

“He was abused and neglected. They found him on the side of the road in Johnson County. He had been burned with chemicals and he was starved to death. You could see every bone in his body. So us helping Atlas heal helps us heal,” Christian Countzler, founder of Stable Recovery said.

This is stable recovery a housing program to help men battling drug addiction.

“How do you judge success with a stable recovery? And I said, every single night one of these guys lays down sober, we’ve won that day. That was something they were incapable of doing before they got here,” Countzler said.

The saying is that dogs are a man’s best friend. But here, these dogs are more than that. They’re the reason some of these men get up in the morning. The residents help the dogs from Paws 4 the Cause get ready for adoption.

“I’m surrounded by a bunch of great individuals and around these beautiful animals and working in a beautiful place, giving me a lot of hope. And dogs are great and listen, and Moose (the dog) and I have taken a very keen liking to each other, to say the least,” Nick Legnon, who attends Stable Recovery said.

Thirty-four men have graduated from the center and Brandon and Nick hope to walk in their steps.

“I need as much support as I could possibly get, you know, because that phone the phone gets heavy whenever, you know, it comes to crunch time or like when I’m struggling. And the more people that I have to call, you know, the less like you, the less likely it is for me to use,” Franklin said.

“It’s a sense of love that I really haven’t felt in my life in a very long time. We all have each other’s back. At the end of the day, we’re all here for the same cause, and the greater good of each other,” Legnon said.

After finishing the first phase of the program, the men know enough about the equine industry to get a job on one of the many farms that partner with the center.