[nagdu] (no subject)

[Craig Heaps]

Barb:

I can identify.  I am sixty years old.  I have been legally blind since I was 28.  For the first 15 years or so, I functioned without a cane or a dog.  I was in TV news and worked as an on-air reporter.  I covered fires, floods, earthquakes and just about everytihng else.  I worked really hard to hide my blindness.  I covered stories such as chiildren of war in Uganda, the aftermath of the war iin Bosnia, daily life in Cuba, and wildfires in Yellowstone National Park.

About fifteen years ago, I began using a white cane.  I noticed I had to do a lot less explaining to people when I bumped into them on BART trains.  In fact, as I told my wife, it's the best of all wordls.  I bump into them and they apoligize to me.  I had to work a lot less when I began using the cane.  I appreciated finding obstacles with my cane instead of my shins.  

My wife was the one who pressed me to get a dog.  I said, "Give me your best argument for why I need a dog."  She said, "I walak behind you, and you don't realize how much you don't see."  She had witnessed my near-misses with people and objects every day.  

I applied to GDB for a guide dog.  It took a year and a half.  I had to go get formal orienation and mobility training.  My adaptive and cane skills were all self-taught and remarkably inadequate.  But a year ago, Chase and I graduated as a team from Guide Dogs for the Blind.  Haivng a guide dog did not revolutionaize my life.  But he does make it easier.  We are not afraid to jump on a BART train and go to a Giants game in San Francisco by ourselves.  Chase guides me though the crowd and we travel about three times as fast as I ever did with or without a cane.  And a lot fewer collisions for which to apologize.  Chase loves going new places.  He flies on planes with me.  He's been on a ferry boat.  

There's a trade off.  You have to feed, groom and relive a dog.  You have to be responsible for his/her welfare.  But in return you have a greater measure of safety and a constant companion.  

For more  on my experience, you can check my blog 
craigdogdays.blogspot.com

As I anticipated the start of my training, I wrote there about my apprehension.  Like you, I wasn't sure I was a good candidate for a guide dog.  

Craig and Chase

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Barb breuer via nagdu 
  To: Full Name 
  Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2014 10:49 AM
  Subject: [nagdu] (no subject)


  I have been doing a lot of thinking sence  I started looking into getting I guide dog.  Like do I need one, will it be a help to me, or can I get around well enough on my own.  Plus do I have to much vision to qualify.  
  I have a good amount of vision for a blind person.  My mother went to a school for the blind, and didn't want her kids to go to one.  She wanted us to learn to use the sight we had.  
  So now I feel like, I can do these things, cross the street, walk without a cane, find my way.  
  I have had people I know ask why do you need a guide dog?  My answer is because the dog would help me at night when I don't see so good, and in the bright sun, plus I have thick glasses and I have little side vision.  I get a long well at work, but I clean locker rooms for a living and fold towels.  Not a lot of need for dog.  

  I don't like going places that I haven't been so much because I do think about, will there be a step or something I don't see.  I walk slower because of it and when I am with people I walk a step behind and watch where they step.  
  So I feel like a dog would make my life easier, and having a companion with me would be nice.  
  I Am in my 50's and do think about how walking a dog,  people think twice before they want to jump you.  But having a dog is a good way to  meet new friends.  
  Sorry for it being so long, I just have a lot on my mind. 
  Barb

  Sent from Xfinity Connect Mobile App


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