Great things about being blind. More ice cream adventures.

Writing about ice cream adventures with my guides, reminded me of my first dog Shana.  shana was a family pet that we got when I was about 5.  she was a lab mix.  she was black and felt mostly like a lab.  she was a wonderful dog.  she gave me my love of dogs and help me move towards getting a dog in many ways.  We didn't take her to obedience.  I guess they had it then.  We also let her have some of our food.  She ran loose at our cottage.  One thing we used to do was to give her the empty ice cream cartons to clean out.  I would not do this now with my guides.  She loved to do this.  One of my most favourite sounds as a kid was hearing Shana clean out the cartons.  She would get so excited and walk around the kitchen pushing the carton ahead of her, licking furiously at it.  Her whole head would be inside the carton and so she would bump into the cupboards or other furniture.  She wagged furiously all the time too.  Her tail banging against the stove which made a hollow sound.  Her tail was a wildly wagging thing and always whacked into everything loudly and with gusto.  What a great sound memory that is.

Great things about being blind. Another ice cream adventure.

As As I was writing about my ice cream adventures with tulia the other day, I was reminded of another ice cream story.  This happened with my first guide dog Gwenny.  Near where we were living at the time, was a little diner.  They had excellent burgers and fries and an interesting owner and cook who read constantly.  He even read as he was cooking your burger.  I had many conversations with him about books.  They sold ice cream too.  Once in a while, they would have mango ice cream.  I love many kinds of ice cream (especially chocolate ones and chocolate mint) but once in a while what I really love is mango ice cream.  Whenever he had it, he would call out of his door to Gwenny and I as we walked past, "Kim.  I have mango ice cream."  Sometimes I didn't stop.  But, often I did.  One particularly hot day, as we were walking by, I got the call.  We had to climb quite a hill to get home and mango ice cream sounded awfully good.  Gwenny was my first guide dog.  A wonderful black lab (not quite as small as tulia) full of personality, a great worker, and as most labs are, quite passionate about her food.  Into the diner I went, got a mango ice cream cone, and proceeded towards home.  The cone was in my right hand, Gwenny's harness in my left hand as we walked.  Gwenny kept glancing up at the ice cream.  She was looking back at me.  Not sure if she was hoping for melting, tipping, falling ice cream or what exactl.  Maybe all of the above.  But, as she looked at me, she ran herself right into a sign.  Smack!  I had been about to tell her to pay attention to her work but figured the sign did that for me.  She sat down right away and hung her head.  If a blakc lab could turn red with embarrassment, perhaps she would have.  After that, she kept her eyes and her mind on her job and off my ice cream.  I still love mango ice cream and whenever I eat it, I think of her.

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?