[Ag-eq] To retrieve or not? thatis the burning question

[Jewel]

I, honestly, can't understand how blind people can say that they have no need for their guide dog to
know how to retrieve. They must lose a heck of a lot of stuff and just keep the loss quiet!
A lady from another list who has just completed her dog's education in the working, as opposed to 
the play, retrieve, was telling us of how she, inadvertently,  had dropped a pair of scissors, and 
was debating with herself as to the advisability of asking the dog to retrieve them.  However, as 
the negative side of this self-debate  was arguing that the dog might cut its mouth if she were to 
pick them up by the blades, D, the dog put an end to all the hargy-bargy by springing off her bed, 
running across the room, picking up  the scissors:  yes, by the ...  You guessed right!  handle: 
and placing them on her owner's lap!Now, S could, probably, have found the scissors without D's 
timely intervention, but what
if she had dropped a 5$ note without being aware of it. At the next vacuuming, that 5$ note would
have been up the pipe and gone.
It wasn't a 5$ note per se, but something of, potentially, far greater value that Guideon has just
brought me.
Here in New Zealand, blind people who use taxis are issued with vouchers that entitle them to half
fare.
I keep my vouchers clipped to the back of my chequebook with a paperclip.
I was unaware of it, but when I put the chequebook away in the desk draw yesterday afternoon after
writing a cheque to the shearer who had done a very nice job of removing a year's growth of wool
from my ewes, those vouchers with the paperclip had fallen to the floor, and Guideon has just
brought them to me.
I knew from the way he was walking around that he had something in his mouth that he wanted to give
me, and when I took it from him, if it had not been for the fact that the paperclip was still on the
cardboard, I would have thought that it was just a piece of cardboard and would have consigned it to
the fire.

3 cheers for the boy wonder: HIP HIP ... HIP HIP ... HIP HIP ...
Guideon blushes and says "ah shucks! was nuttin!"

Jewel