Great things about being blind. Listening to dog tails wagging

Okay once again I am holding off on the airline stories. After all, I have all year to post something every day. I'm starting to wonder if I was over ambitious? Last night, my two dogs were playing. Gia, my retired guide dog who is a golden and tiny black lab guide Tulia. Their tails were wagging. It makes me smile to hear and feel dog tails wagging. Gia has a long, thin, soft golden tail with that fan like fur under it. She wags slowly. If she is lying on her side and you approach there is a slow and rhythmic thump thump thump of the tail. If she is lying on her stomach you can here a whispering swish swish swish back and forth. When she is in water and wags it, again there is a swishing sound. When she was working and it was summer, I used to love to feel that golden tail tap against my leg. Tulia has a tiny, short, broad, lab tail. she wags it faster. Thump-thump thump-thump and when she is sitting down and wags very fast there is a very fast swishing noise as she wags. She can wag her whole self too which you can feel if you have your hand on her shoulders while she does it. So when the two dogs play together you can hear various tail wags hitting the wall, clanging on the furniture, thumping on the floor. It never fails to make me very happy.

Great things about being blind. Listening to dogs walk in their boots.

Okay okay once again you are on hold with the airline material. I'm a storyteller. I know what it is to build suspense! Smile! Yesterday, Tulia wore her dog boots when we were out and about. I've had quite a history with dog boots. In fact, I have a pile of dog boots at home. Lots of colours, lots of types, but very few full sets. Until now! Touch wood. Tulia tolerates boots and even keeps them on. AMAZING! My first experience with dog boots was with my first guide dog. She hated the road salt as all of my guides have. The vet suggested to get some boots, put them on, harness her up, and go for a walk right away all the time praising her for wearing her boots. So, I did. Now, this was a dog who wouldn't wear a coat. Would actually sit down in the pouring rain until you removed it. Would refuse to walk if wearing anything more than her harness. I should have known she would't stand boots. So off we went for our walk around the neighbourhood. Every few minutes, I kept saying, "Good girl for wearing your boots." Blind rooky mistake. I didn't check to see if boots were all on. Now, this is a problem in itself when you're totally blind. It's freezing cold winter weather. The dog needs boots on. I need gloves on. With gloves on, it is as if I am blindfolded. I can't feel whether or not boots are on. In that first walk, I chirped enthusiastically, "Good good girl for wearing your boots." When I arrived home and went to remove boots, only one boot remained on a paw. So whoever heard me enthusiastically talking about nonexistent dog boots, if you're out there, I eventually figured it out. My second dog wouldn't wear boots either. Gia my retired dog (still living with me now) tolerated them but didn't keep them on well. Once, going to work in the midst of a bad snow, she lost two and work staff went out searching. They found one. In the spring, one of my colleagues found the other hanging from a bush. She almost had a car accident stopping her car to run and grab the dog boot. In the mean time, another colleague went to a pet store, found a package of three boots and begged the staff to give it to the blind woman and her hard working guide dog. He actually did. So now, Tulia will wear her boots. She has nice red ones given to us by guide dogs for the blind
www.guidedogs.com
But she also has purple balloon boots called pawz which she wears too.
Her red boots are ruffwear and they are very good as well.
I don't hear it so much with the pawz boots but with the ruffwear boots, I love to hear her walk in them.
Sometimes she sounds like someone shuffling their feet in bedroom slippers.
Sometimes her feet make a little pat pat pat noise on the ground.
I love the sound of it.
And yes yesterday I did the usual.
Get to a corner or somewhere to stop, pull off one glove, lean down, feel each leg to make sure boot is in place, give kibble reward to the dog, put glove on, and proceed forwards.
I've wished that someone could invent something like those strings for mittens moms used to put in our coats so even if the dog loses a boot, she doesn't. It's very cold today. You may see us. Tulia prancing and tapping and shuffling. Me, gloves off, check boots, offer kibble, gloves on. If you do see me, you could save me a little coldness by telling me Tulia still is wearing all four boots. My hands will thank you.

Great things about being blind. Listening to voices.

I know! I know! Ipromised to tell you a funny airline story but that will have to wait until tomorrow. The reason is that I was listening to some radio announcers this morning talking about how when people meet them, they say, "You don't look like what I thought you would look like." A great thing about being totally blind is that I would never say that. Smile. People are always amazed when they call me on the phone and I know exactly who it is right away. Of course I would. I know people by their voices. By the sound of their walk at times. Some people always wear certain shoes. Clicky high heels. Squeaky leather. Some people always rattle their keys in their pockets, jingle coins, some people always wear a certain scent (although in these scent free days that is not as good an indicator of who someone is) People that use a walker or cane or have a squeak in the wheel of their wheelchair I can tell by the sound sometimes. But the voice is the easiest thing to recognize. Although sometimes when I meet someone in a different environment from what I am used to seeing them in, I might take a minute to figure out who it is. Tomorrow back to air travel. Fasten your seatbelts for a great story.

Great things about being blind. Flying on planes

This is the start of a series of postings about air travel. One great thing about being blind is that you sometimes learn amazing things and get to tell others what things seem like to you. For example, for many many years well into my teens, I thought that when you fly on a plane, it takes off, nose first up into the air (which it does of course) but that when the pilot landed the plane, it touched down back wheels first. I thought how amazing that was that the pilot could do that. I thought this because when you land, if your eyes are closed, you feel like you're moving backwards. Try it some time and see if I am right. When I happened to mention this on a flight one time and was told what really happens, that was amazing too. Stay tuned tomorrow for the pilot and guide dog tale.

Great things about being blind seeing the moon

One great thing about being blind is looking at things and thinking they are awesome. Sometimes they aren't what you think they are. I've been practically totally blind since birth. I can however see light in one eye. One time when I was quite young, I was sitting on the steps in our back yard. I saw a nice bright light. It was night time so I presumed it was the moon. How wonderful! I was gazing at the moon. Just like people in novels did or the people in folk tales. I gazed and gazed and felt very awestruck and superior. My dad came out to ask what I was doing. I informed him that I was gazing at the beautiful full moon. He asked me to point to it and when I did, he informed me that I was actually gazing at a streetlight. Nevertheless, the moonstruck feeling was there! And the feeling was amazing!