The End is now the Beginning
The past few days have been a blur. Not sure how to capture it all. We’ve checked all of the boxes for completing the requirements for training at The Seeing Eye. I even had one special good-bye with Angie’s trainer. It was like seeing a tangible living gift being handed to me; one that was bitter sweet for us both. Angie is the culmination of hard work, dedication, sleepless nights, early starts in the morning, long walks, proud moments, and of course tough ones as well. I am thankful to receive a gift that so many people clearly love and care for.
Knowing how special Angie is, it does cause a deeper awareness of the responsibility I have to her as one half of the partnership. Unfortunately, this caused me to toss and turn all night. I think I saw every hour from 11:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. I was happy to be going home, but scared at the same time.
We left the school at 5:30 a.m. and began the process of getting checked in. While Angie did well, there seemed to be a great deal of confusion by people who were in a feedback loop of “too many chiefs.” It was good to know the TSA officers were trained in what to do when checking in a guide dog team, but wished they had better control over the check-in line.
The instructor stayed with us until we boarded the plane for home. I wanted to convey to her how much I appreciated having a familiar face to see me off.
Angie slept through the whole flight and made it through BWI with ease. She worked very well in following my neighbor who was there to pick us up. It felt like I was in an unfamiliar territory without having an instructor there feeding me directions and prompts on Angie’s reactions to what she sees. This leads into the differences in how a blind person learns about and orient within their environment with a dog versus a cane. The best analogy that I can come up with for now is that a cane is doing its job by you using it to identify objects close to you, the dog does its job by bringing you around them. That is a huge generalization and something I’ll get into later once I have had 8 hours of sleep.
I haven’t quite come up with a good nickname for her. I find myself calling her “Lil Bit” since she’s so small. A friend from church brought over some amazing gifts from friends near and far for both me and Angie. The coming home process seems a bit harder since when I came home with Denver and Mugs my parents were there to support me. But this time, things were made so much easier by my neighbor and this good friend who picked me up from the airport, brought over some home cooked meals, helped me unpack, and get Angie settled. I don’t know how I could have gotten all of those things taken care of since she has sniffed every centimeter of my home more than once. I’m only able to write this entry because she is now taking a nap! Here’s hoping for a good night’s sleep. I feel like
I’m bringing home a newborn. It feels like the exhaustion of the past three weeks have become even more real. I feel so drained emotionally and physically.
So where do we go from here? Not really sure, but what I do know is that it feels like each step has just a bit more hope and courage in it, especially since I have a partner to journey with me for a while.
Knowing how special Angie is, it does cause a deeper awareness of the responsibility I have to her as one half of the partnership. Unfortunately, this caused me to toss and turn all night. I think I saw every hour from 11:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. I was happy to be going home, but scared at the same time.
We left the school at 5:30 a.m. and began the process of getting checked in. While Angie did well, there seemed to be a great deal of confusion by people who were in a feedback loop of “too many chiefs.” It was good to know the TSA officers were trained in what to do when checking in a guide dog team, but wished they had better control over the check-in line.
The instructor stayed with us until we boarded the plane for home. I wanted to convey to her how much I appreciated having a familiar face to see me off.
Angie slept through the whole flight and made it through BWI with ease. She worked very well in following my neighbor who was there to pick us up. It felt like I was in an unfamiliar territory without having an instructor there feeding me directions and prompts on Angie’s reactions to what she sees. This leads into the differences in how a blind person learns about and orient within their environment with a dog versus a cane. The best analogy that I can come up with for now is that a cane is doing its job by you using it to identify objects close to you, the dog does its job by bringing you around them. That is a huge generalization and something I’ll get into later once I have had 8 hours of sleep.
I haven’t quite come up with a good nickname for her. I find myself calling her “Lil Bit” since she’s so small. A friend from church brought over some amazing gifts from friends near and far for both me and Angie. The coming home process seems a bit harder since when I came home with Denver and Mugs my parents were there to support me. But this time, things were made so much easier by my neighbor and this good friend who picked me up from the airport, brought over some home cooked meals, helped me unpack, and get Angie settled. I don’t know how I could have gotten all of those things taken care of since she has sniffed every centimeter of my home more than once. I’m only able to write this entry because she is now taking a nap! Here’s hoping for a good night’s sleep. I feel like
I’m bringing home a newborn. It feels like the exhaustion of the past three weeks have become even more real. I feel so drained emotionally and physically.
So where do we go from here? Not really sure, but what I do know is that it feels like each step has just a bit more hope and courage in it, especially since I have a partner to journey with me for a while.
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