[NAGDU] Anniversary (LONG)

David david at bakerinet.com
Mon Jun 27 23:23:22 UTC 2016


July 3rd will mark the anniversary of the day Claire Rose and I arrived 
home from school.  As you can imagine, after a year Claire and I are 
pretty tight. We walk each morning for a couple of hours, unless I start 
too late and it gets too hot. I carry ice in a Camelbak and we sit on 
benches a couple of times to finish off the ice. She thinks that ice is 
the world's most fabulous treat. The school's local trainer here is not 
too hot about treats, but Claire is so food driven, we have continued 
treats for performance on a random basis since leaving school.

She can find an elevator button, even when I am convinced there isn't 
one. The minute the door opens on an elevator in a bank of elevators she 
is dragging me to it. Men's restrooms are a magnet and she never fails 
to find one when I ask. I think I've mentioned before how she learned to 
find traffic buttons in one clicker session at one intersection. The 
only ones she has trouble with are those behind a guardrail. We still 
argue about pace when walking, but I am becoming more relaxed about it 
and she is, too. I don't know whether she was taught the Walk and Hike 
commands, but she handles both of them with ease. Walk has been a big 
help in grocery stores and Hike is great when we have to wend our way 
through narrow places. We're currently working on tree roots on park 
paths and she is getting pretty good. At 76 I'm a little too old to 
spend a lot of time on the ground. Fortunately, Claire thinks so, too. 
She's very good at sidewalk problems, once I've tripped over them. 
(Right About, repeat Right About, repeat)

She is a perfect lady in restaurants - slides under and disappears until 
it is time to go. (She does like licking bare toes and lotion from legs, 
however, and when I hear giggles from my dinner mates, I know she's 
indiscreetly making her presence known.) She finds cash registers, exits 
and entrances, of course, and ignores children and dogs with a "Leave 
It" (even though she loves the little ones).

We took 10 flight segments last year and she was perfect. The airline 
attendants love her. As sweet as she is, it is kind of hard not to. 
Teaching TSA officers how to handle us through the scanner has had mixed 
results. We're off to the NFB convention in Orlando next week. It will 
be our first train ride.

I think she has filled out some, but at 70 pounds she weighs the same as 
the day we left the school.  Fenway, our 55 lb. pet lab/husky cross has 
become more tolerant and while they are not always playmates, they kiss 
after absences and as long as it is not one of Fenway's high value toys, 
she allows Claire to play with them. Fenway won't go near the water and 
Claire won't stay out of it, so when we are out on the lanai and Claire 
has been given "pool time", she confounds Fenway by jumping in the pool 
on her float with one of Fen's toys. Claire has found a few other dog 
friends. An old friend and another grad from our school live a few 
blocks away and his 80+ pound lab and Claire are a good match 
energy-wise. Their play reminds me of how she played at school with her 
larger brother. No fear.

Thanks to her trainer and Claire's puppy raiser for the wonderful job 
they did with Claire Rose. She has made a big difference in my life. I 
was pretty good with a cane, but my wife said she started to cry when 
she saw the two of us walking down the street looking like normal 
"people". Ah, well.

Thanks, too, to all the wonderful people on our lists who have provided 
support each day as we hit different challenges.

-- 

David and Claire Rose in Clearwater, FL




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