Good morning Bloggets. Well, that week with my Husband has
passed. Sadly, today he went back to work. Waggatail has the lip on as I say,
she is sulking. Her little play pal has gone back to work. Little Fella was
ready with his briefcase and harness at the door smiling in a way only he can
at 7.25 this morning. Gosh, the house is so quiet. Little Fella is a houseful.
I adore him though he can be so happy playing with his toys and if I say bed,
he just stops doing what he is doing and goes to bed. Waggatail on the other
hand, I say bed, she says make me.
Though Wagga on her own is very quiet. Together they are mischievous.
I think that is so cute. They both worked well all week when Hub and I went out
with them. Little Fella so much wants to please Hub, he will do everything to
the point of perfection. Wagga has her moments, but as long as I give her full attention,
she will work well too. And she did. As long as there was a biscuit at the end
of her journeys. I don’t feed her during journeys now, unless she is getting
shown a new route. But I do tell her, if you find whatever, you will get a biscuit.
She understands everything I say, and when I say it, rather than looking at my pocket
or hand, her little legs run like a clockwork toy. That’s how I know she understands
me. As soon as we get to where we need to be, then the pocket and hand
searching and scanning begins.
I wonder if the robot guide dog will ever appear? Some time
ago that was spoken about I think in Japan. Then Hub and I got talking, and we
came to the same conclusion. Why do we need to be seen with something dragging
along that looks like a vacuum cleaner, when all we do is tell our dogs to find
left, right, straight on, steady step and wait at the kerb? We ask our dogs to
find the door and other things like the bus stop or post box. Our knowledge of
our routes are taught to us before we get our dogs and if we need to learn new
ones, then we learn with our dogs and the guide dog instructor, but it’s us,
giving our dogs instructions. We don’t say to our dogs, take us to whatever
shop, like “Find Marks & Spencer’s?””
We learn where that is then say, find left right and so on,
when we get to where we think we are, we say find the door. Our dogs have
learned how to get to that shop, that is why they will take us in that door,
rather than every other door, but, there is one route we do that has four shops
in one line that we use, and Little Fella will go to every door, but that is
fine, because if he takes Hub to the first door and hub need the third one,
when he takes Hub to the second, Hub, knows it’s the next one he needs.
So, do we need a body to guide us? Why not earphones that instruct
us or we instruct our earphones it would have to have a mike though because
otherwise it would look as if we are talking to ourselves, again, smile. Also, we
would have to be able to hear what is around us so the earphones couldn’t block
out real sounds. A bit like what you get at the theatre when you have audio
earphones. Or something you wear on your wrist? That for me would be the best
as long as it was loud enough to hear. Nothing we need to carry, as to have
free hands as a blind person is great. Just to be able to hold a banister or
carry a bag.
So, come on techies, Students, do your stuff? But please ask
advice from those of us who can’t see first.
It’s like we have a white cane. Why? To tell us if there is
a step and how steep the step is? To find an open door? To make sure our
pathway is clear and to let others know we can’t see. Well, the technology will
do that, and you could wear some kind of badge to say you are blind or
partially sighted. If that will happen though money will have to be spent on
advertising what the badge means. Can you believe it, now days, there are still
people who don’t know what a white cane is for and there are the odd, very odd,
few who don’t know what a guide dog is? I have been asked the obvious am I training
my dog, OK, with me and Waggatail, it may look like we are in training, but
with a full harness? And, I have been asked is my dog for deaf people? The best
is, “Is your dog a Police dog?””
I think all airlines should run an advert showing a person
who can’t see and showing them with a white cane and another with a guide dog.
As there are countries that don’t have dogs for the blind and partially sighted
or, white canes. And now days, tourists are in all of our big cities/towns. So,
awareness.
How much would it cost to make this kind of technology? I
doubt as much as a guide dog. Do you know in the UK now, it costs the charity
£55,000 for the partnership between one, guide dog and one person? Because of
new Government regulations, to leave money to the charity now days is becoming
more difficult. It used to be where campaigners could call homes and ask if
they would donate, but they are not allowed to do that now. So, Guide Dogs are
getting less.
There was a lady behind us at the theatre the other day,
after she saw Hubs Little Fella behave so well during the performance, she
tapped him on the shoulder and said. “And that is why I am leaving my money to
Guide Dogs!”” Bless her. She went onto say, you are here today because he got
you here. It’s so lovely to know that I will help towards giving people a life.
My heart melted for her kindness. Thank God for people like her.
Some Solicitors give you a free will, if you say you want to
donate money to Guide Dogs. You have to contact Guide Dogs first. They send a
form out to you and between you and the Solicitor you will be able to complete
the brief form to enable you to get a free Will.
No comments:
Post a Comment