Thursday, April 28, 2011

Great things about being blind. the ice cream finder!

We had a brief taste of warmer weather but spring sure hasn't been in a hurry to arrive.  The other day, it was warm and fairly nice though.  I felt like having an ice cream.  Two people and one guide dog went for ice cream.  The ice cream place was in a food court of sorts.  I'd never been there before with Tulia and had only been there once or twice before.
We weaved through tables and past other food places and then the person I was with, turned in to the ice cream place.  I told tulia, "Left.  Inside." and she followed.
We ordered and retreived our ice cream and sat down and ate it.
Afterwards, I told Tulia forward outside, and she found her way out.  We did a little more shopping around that area.  Then, we were off to get our bus.  We walked through the much mmore crowded food court.  I heard people's voices all around us.  I smelled various types of food.  We were in a wide open space.  I find navigating large, open, echoy areas somewhat challenging at the best of times.  It id difficult to know where you are and where you are going.  With a guide dog, this is somewhat easier although you often have to trust your dog and can't always provide precise directions.  Tulia was walking along, I could feel her moving left and right weaving through obstacles.
Then she made an abrupt right turn.
Who was I to say she shouldn't do that?  perhaps something was in our path.
Then I heard a cash register and a voice saying,  "Are you back?  Do you want more ice cream?"  in quite a surprised manner.
Tulia was sitting down at my left side.  I heard the swish swish swish of the furiously wagging little black tail.  "I brought you back here.  I did I did I did!  You were so happy when  you were here before!  With your delicious ice cream."  I laughed so hard.
Tulia has a phenomenal memory for finding places we've been to before.
Maybe she wanted an ice cream?
What flavour do you think?
Squirrel flavoured?  liver flavoured?  lamb and rice flavoured?

1 comment:

  1. Maybe peanut butter flavored ;)

    I can imagine any of the labs I've raised doing that.

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