[nagdu] The Seeing Eye adventure begins: the day before

[Reinhard Stebner]

If you would like to read my blog on-line, please visit:

Reinhardstebner.blogspot.com

 

This will be the best way to keep in touch with me while I am away at The
Seeing Eye; I will not be able to post to the email lists while I am away.

 

This is a journal of my experiences while training at The Seeing Eye; I will
be discussing my training with a guide dog. These experiences will include
the good and the bad. What went right during the day and what went wrong.
The experience will be from a first person's point of view and will include
a description of what the dog looks like (to me) as well as the different
people who I meet. I am writing this blog as a means to share with the
public what it feels like to be getting a guide dog as well as issues one
encounters with one's guide. If you have any feedback, please send it my way
and I would be more then glad to help you understand.

 

Tomorrow I will be flying to TSE (The Seeing Eye). I have mixed feelings
about this and am wondering how this match will go. The reason why I am
feeling apprehensive is because I have had two dogs from Fidelco who had
health issues. I really want this to work and am praying that it will. The
flight leaves DC at 8:30a and I will start my new life. This is a new life
because I will be having to transition from a life without a dog and a
companion. A companion who if one treats one appropriately with love and
kindness will return love; being a partner for his or her life. I have mixed
feelings about this trip because of my past experiences with dog health
issues. Today I am packing and cleaning my place because I will be gone for
over 3 weeks. For the past couple of weeks I have really given this whole
guide dog thing a real hard think. You may ask why, did you not already
resolve all of your doubts when you decided to go back for your next dog?
Good question. Yes and no. I feel like that I am giving up on my previous
dog and that I should have waited for him to become health again. This is
not easy for me to be going back for a 3rd dog within six months (I received
a dog from Fidelco at the end of October of 2012). One could say that I am
leery at this point; however, I'm looking forward to meeting new people and
a new dog.

I will be attending The Seeing Eye (www. <http://www.theseeingeye.com>
seeingeye.org/) starting tomorrow 4/16/2012 and returning to D. C. on
5/3/2012. I am currently unemployed and hope that by the time I return that
I will have an offer for a job. For those of you who do not know me, my
career is in accessibility testing (section 508) for the federal government
as well as for privet companies.  Well this will about do it for me today
and I shall talk to you again from Moorestown New Jersey tomorrow after I
have settled in.