[nagdu] February 15, 2005 - Dog Day

[Tamara Smith-Kinney]

Jen,

Beautiful description of that meeting!  Happy anniversary, both of you, with
many more to come.

Tami Smith-Kinney

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Jen&Nixon
Sent: Sunday, February 14, 2010 4:51 PM
To: 'NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users'
Subject: [nagdu] February 15, 2005 - Dog Day

"Jen." My instructor said, and I turned to face her, awaiting impatiently,
clasping my hands, and shaking somewhat visibly for that all-important
information.
 
"You will be receiving a male yellow labrador." she said to me.
 
A yellow lab? Wow. Male? I thought I may get a female? A smaller dog?
 
"His name is Nixon." she also shared.
 
"Oh you mean spelled, N-I-C..." I asked confusedly.
 
"No," my instructor came closer nearer to my good ear, and drew an X as she
spelled Nixon's name, "N-I-X-O-N."
 
I sat there letting the name roll around in my mind. "Nixon." I knew I liked
the ring of the name. "I wonder if the name will suit him." I heard whispers
around the lecture room, as some of the other students in my class commented
about "Richard Nixon". I was only 23, so I had no idea of the historical
aspect of the name until I came home and did some research on my own.
 
After everyone received word of the name/gender/breed of their dogs, the
instructors got us all go to our rooms, to wait our turns to meet our
newly-matched dogs.
 
Here I was at the Boring, Oregon campus of Guide Dogs for the Blind for the
four-week long training and bonding time with my new successor dog. I
requested for four weeks, although I could have gotten away with being in a
three-week retrain class with my strong background and handling of a guide,
despite switching schools.
 
It seemed like hours before one of the instructors came knocking on my door
ready to take me sighted guide to the instructor's office to meet Nixon. As
we walked closer to the door, I was getting more and more nervous minute by
minute. "Was this dog going to like me?" "Will this dog have an easy-going
pace I need?" "Will I be able to control this dog?" The swirling questions
came fast in my mind after all the troubles I had with my previous guide,
Bronze. 
 
I sat on the couch, tried to look around to see where the dog could be, then
all of a sudden, just in time, in my line of vision, a dog, assuming, Nixon,
came trotting out of the room right up to me.
 
I gasped! "He is *SO* white!"
 
My instructor took pictures of the exact moment of meeting Nixon. He stood
right in front of me, and moved right up to my face, and sniffed my face,
and just stood there, "Who are you? Oh, you can't see? Look at me? Aren't I
beautiful?" I rested his muzzle in my hands, and gazed at his humungous,
large brown eyes. 
 
My instructor rattled out the rest of Nixon's statistics, but everything was
happening so quickly, I didn't remember anything what I was hearing as I
focused all my attention towards Nixon.
 
The first day was hard, as he wasn't sure about me at first as I kept
thinking of Bronze, my first guide, a male black Lab, who mom adopted.
 
The following morning, as I inserted my hearing aids, I heard loudly,
"THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!" In that instant, with such a  loud greeting in the
morning, we were going to be a fine team. 
 
He's definitely soulmate guide dog.
 
Nixon and I have gotten through so much together in the last five years as a
team: going to college and graduating together crossing the stage twice, job
hunting and sleeping through interviews, bowling games, traveling on planes
to SF and Portland a few times. He is everything I could ask for in a guide
dog!
 
Happy 5th anniversary Nixon. He got a well-deserved new stuffed toy and
Bronze, got one too. I have a wishbone nylabone aside for his chew times
while I "work" at my volunteer job at the Canadian Red Cross.
 
Jennifer McEachen and "Nixon"
Guide Dogs for the Blind, Inc.
Alumni Association Board of Directors and secretary
jenandnixon at gmail.com / jmceachen at guidedogs.com
 
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