[nagdu] Introducing Us Finally

[Marsha Drenth]

Ava,

Welcome to our list. Thank you for the introduction. I'm Marsha, full time
student at Temple University, paired with my second Seeing Eye dog, Emma. We
live in Pennsylvania, with my husband. I am also hard of hearing with a
balance issue. Doctor is leaning towards Meniere's at this point. 

I have applied for a successor guide, as Emma, my current guide, is in
semi-retirement. It started with Emma being diagnosed with EPI, and then
after that has been resolved; she still is not working well. So I am using
my cane for much of my travel, I'm not entirely happy about this, but its
more dangerous for me to use her than not to now. 

I'm also the moderator of the list, so if there is anything you need, please
let me know.

Marsha   


-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Ava Foster
Sent: Sunday, April 22, 2012 8:47 PM
To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: [nagdu] introducing Us Finally

Hiya /smile/. I've sort of been lurking here for a while, sometimes
posting but figure no one has a clue who I am. My name's Ava, I'm 31,
and partnered with my 2nd owner-trained dog. After a car accident back
in 2001, I lost most of my peripheral vision and my central vison was
mostly just colors and very shaky. I was blessed to have a pet dog who
took to the job like she was born for it. A service dog trainer (not a
guide dog trainer) helped me with some things, and family and friends
with others. That was Jet, my big Rough Collie (24" tall, 31" long!)
who retired early due to spay incontinence (she was hyper-sensitive to
the meds). While working wth Jet, I developed Meniere's Disease, and
began to quickly lose my sense of balance and hearing. So while my
daytime vision eventually improved - mostly - my night vision was left
more or less useless. I now am partnered with Cocoa, a 23" tall, 67lb
yellow Lab, who was trained with the help of a service dog program as
a hearing dog first, and then owner-trained as a guide. She luckily
took to it too, once she realized she could not sniff everything...and
everyone /smile/. Jet passed in 2010. Ava is now 8 years old. I will
never owner train again. I am honestly too afraid laws wll be passed
requiring some type of school certification. I know I won't qualify
for a guide dog, since I only use Cocoa's guide skills when it is
dark, unless my daytime vison also becomes legally blind again as it
was after the accident. I have recently lost a lot more color vision.
Anyway, this is our intro! I used to belong to NFB but stopped when my
vision improved; I felt guilty for staying a member I think! * Ava and
Cocoa the Great!

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