Dearest Bloggets, whilst the winter continues to remind me
of it’s presence, I’m just about getting warm. It rained hard this morning
followed by really cold weather not a good thing when driving or needing to
walk somewhere as I can imagine it will be dangerously icy. Thankfully today
didn’t involve much walking at all. Just to the car of my Brother in laws and
back from a restaurant to the car…
My dogs have been cleaned as best as they can but still the
remains of sandy soil sticks to my Wagga as she decided to have a safe swim in
a puddle. That’s as far as my dog will swim. Anything steeper than your thumb,
is too risky for my Black Wagging one. My
last guide dog, Hannah, AKA Black Beauty, loved to swim she was like a seal. She
loved it so much and even taught Hubs last dog Suki, AKA Long Chops how to do
the splashing thing!
Oh, Wagga really is stinking, I have cleaned her twice, and
now she’s putting the delightful fragrance around our house, Au de wet dog.
I’m waiting for our Son to get in from work. His dinner is
in the oven keeping warm. Nothing special, just roast potatoes, vegetarian pie
and peas. I can’t keep up with what time he is due in. He starts at totally
different times. Sometimes 6 in the mornings, sometimes 11. But today he started
at half ten in the morning. His place closes at eight tonight, so he could be
on close, but Hub thinks he was working until seven, well, it’s passed that
now, so who knows?
There are other times he starts at seven in the morning and
then there is the half eight start. Confused? I am.
I’m super excited because I’m meeting with my friend next
week. I haven’t seen her for so very long. At least two months. We will of
course do lunch. Sadly, I never have the pleasure of a girly day shopping. But if
there is ever a treatment or cure for my eye condition, Hub and I are going to
shop until we drop. In fact, my friend JB who is the best person at finding
places, has a guide dog, but she said she would never ever go outside without a
dog or human. In other words, never use a white cane. We were joking yesterday
saying we are going to go shopping the two of us in the middle of our home town
of Newcastle at the busiest time on a Saturday lunch time near Christmas. Hahaha.
With white canes… I wonder how far we would get? Before crashing getting lost
or getting arrested…
I’m fine with a white cane if it’s quiet but not if it’s
noisy. Our friend Like travels to work and back in a town with a white cane and
he’s great, but not me, I need to hear where I am. Seriously yesterday Hub and I
decided to take our dogs out for a walk. Wagga was great, avoiding workmen on
the path but most of the way I had to tell her every instruction where as the
Little Fella, just got on with it. I kid you not, Hub was miles ahead, as
always, he is a fast walker. Me, I come out in empathy with the tortoises!
There was a prickly shrub which met my right arm. I recognised it to be the one
at the top of our street. I told Waggs to stand still. Was it where I live? I called
Hubs name and in the distance, he replied so his voice came from the far right,
and I’m not talking politics, and I turned into our avenue of all sorts. But, I
didn’t know for sure where I was, I guess if I was on my own, well firstly I wouldn’t
be quite so brave and just head off to a place of possibly no return, but secondly,
for sure I wouldn’t have walked so far for so long. My built in Satellite
navigation doesn’t deal well with journeys without a purpose other than walking
our dogs.
If I were on my own or Hub was that little bit a head more
than what would have been convenient, eventually when I came to the nasty big
road, I would know I had gone too far. And turned to try again. When I’m out
still I get dizzy. I’m so not confident. I doubt I ever will be. In fact, I did
say that to my Husband yesterday when we got back as I was one step off needing
to lay down with shock… and, he blooming agreed. Hahaha. He used to say, no it’s
still early days for you. Em. Those doors have been opened and closed too many
times now, they are off the hinges.
But I did it. Waggs and I did it. Then I got thinking. What goes
on in a guide dogs head? When we returned home, I gave Waggatail a drink of
water and she went to her bed. As did The Little Fella. They snored. In a deep
sleep, they were shattered. If Hub goes to the town, LF takes a couple of days
to recover. Where as Hubs last dog could go out every second of the day. But,
bless her, she died at nine, I’m sure that had nothing to do with her energy,
but bless her, she worked hard. In my Husbands last job our girl worked so very
hard in London. And loved it. I don’t think LF could do that.
Do our dogs know they are guiding us?
Hub says yes, for sure. He says because they avoid obstacles.
I said they do that because they don’t want to walk into something or someone. But
he rightly said that his last dog, Long Chops, would walk along our narrow
paths of our city and suddenly stop. Take a look around then she would turn a
sudden left for example, and take Hub down a street he or she had never been,
turn again and bring him out to where he would have wanted to be if not for
loads of people being in the way. Oh, she was really a wonder dog. Now, she
could have squeezed down that pathway easily. But not so with Hub. As there are
often queues both sides of our paths with bollards in the middle. Also, she
would put her head on my leg and walk me through where we had two sofas where
there was a tiny gap to get through, where I know how to get through it, but LC
bless her would think I would bump myself so she would walk me in between the
sofa’s and then she would continue her day happy I was safe. As if I couldn’t do it on my own?
What goes through their heads when they are doing their guiding
thing?
Who knows but the Little Fella has his tail as far up like a
cat as possible. It doesn’t really wag, just right up and curls to meet with
Hubs hand on his harness. So cute. My Waggatails tail apparently according to
my friend Julie, stays down this is why I’m not sure what it’s doing, and she
told me Wags’s tail wags just a tiny bit left to right. When Waggatail goes to
an area she doesn’t know, she starts to frantically sniff. Sometimes refusing
to walk, this is a kind of hindrance… but thankfully we rarely go anywhere new.
Where as LF would go anywhere. Waggs loves her harness though, she loves to be out
especially if at the end of her walk there is a biscuit. She used to hate
walking back home, but the promise of a biscuit, oh, my, suddenly she finds a
new gear and ups it.
I think my Wagga thinks when we are out, this is fun, what’s
in Mummy’s pockets? And moreover, what’s waiting for me at home? Or is she
thinking, like Little Fella “Our owners rely on us it’s up to us to keep them
safe!”” I mean, many times we are about to cross a road, and one of those
silent cars goes by, we start to ask our dogs to cross and they refuse. Because
they have road sense and don’t want to be hit? Because they know they have to
be the decision maker this time and make sure we stay still? Or both may be or,
just they are trained so well when they see a car, not to cross. There is so
much work put into their training.
Our dogs can even look up to a high tree and avoid that for
us, it won’t even bother them as it’s much higher than they are, this must be
training, I can’t imagine them being so brilliantly clever, can you? Having said
that, my dog was trained and she sometimes decides to tell me about those branches,
but not always. So, either her trainers weren’t so fussy with hanging branches,
or Waggatail has a selective memory.
Do they talk to each other, kind of swap notes and tips?
I think they do because again I was out with my friend Julie
on two occasions and both times Hub and the Little Fella were as always, a head
of us and Julie kept telling me how cute LF was as he would from time to time,
turn his head to look at us… each time he did this, Wagga’s tail would move faster.
So, is LF checking his big sister is OK? Warning her that there are hanging
branches ahead? Or, is he laughing at her calling her slow coach? Smile… They
talk when they come home because after a drink and a treat, they both head to
bed and stay there for around the same time. Funny thing, at nights, one dog
will take themselves off to bed and within a second the other one will follow.
Or, they will just start to play with their toys together, the same time.
Hub and I joke as we feed our dogs one at a time, leaving
the other one out of the room. When the one who has been fed first goes through
to see the hungry one, they tell the other they have had a huge bit of steak
for dinner…. And there are dry biscuits left for them… But that’s just because
Hub and I are ever so slightly mad!
One thing I do know, is we love our guide dogs so very much
and they really are life savers.
No comments:
Post a Comment