What Happens When Seeing Eye Dogs Retire?

“How much does Hanni weigh?”

That was the first question asked after our presentation at Jackson Middle School in Orlando Friday. Not a bad question, really. Just one I hadn’t heard after any of the talks I’d given before.

Seems every time we visit a school, one of the kids in the audience comes up with a new question. If I think it through later, I can usually figure out why that particular subject matter came up.

Take the time I went to Hendricks School on the south side of Chicago, for example. The kids there came from families with low incomes, but they had the same curiosity, and they asked similar questions, as the kids I visit in well-to-do suburbs. You know, things like “How do you know if it’s time to wake up?” and “Is it scary being blind?”

Beth and Hanni both enjoy watching the White Sox. Illustration from “Hanni and
Beth, Safe & Sound.”

Hendricks is located near White Sox park, and since Safe & Sound has an illustration of Hanni and me watching a ballgame, the kids had all sorts of questions about that. “What if you got hit by a ball?” I told them we try to sit under netting. “What if there’s a hole in the net?” I told them Mike usually comes with us to ballgames, so he warns me if a ball is coming. “What if he is going to get hot dogs so he isn’t there and the ball comes?” The ballgame questions went on and on. And it was really, really fun.

Jackson Middle School in Orlando was not that different from Hendricks. I found out from teachers there that a significant number of kids who attend Jackson are homeless. With that in mind, I emphasized how important it is to find someone you can trust, I talked about the trust Hanni and I have in each other, how we work as a team. “We’ve worked together eight years,” I Said. “We have a strong bond. We know each other very, very, well.” Hanni is nine, I told them, and most Seeing Eye dogs retire at around ten years old.

The teacher broke in then. “What happens after they retire?” she asked. I explained my three options:

• I could bring Hanni back too the Seeing Eye, and they’ll find someone to adopt her, or
• we could find a friend who wants to adopt her, or
• we could keep her as a pet, and when I bring my new Seeing Eye dog home we’d have two dogs.

Later on LouisLuis, the boy who had asked how much Hanni weighed, had another question. I answered, then asked if he’d mind answering one for me. “How come you wanted to know how much she weighed?”

The answer was simple. He lived in an apartment where they only let you have dogs who weigh less than 45 pounds. “I was hoping I could adopt Hanni when she retires, but I guess not.” he said, the disappointment obvious in his voice.

LouisLuis is just one of many, many people who admired Hanni during our trip to Florida. She wowed the audience at our Playing by Ear session at the Early Childhood Association of Florida conference Saturday morning, and then again during our book signing at UrbanThink Bookstore that afternoon.

I had a lot of support from family and friends in Orlando. Among them Brian, Jennifer Amodt (Jen's my niece, Brian is her squeeze), and my nephew Robbie Amodt.

I’m composing this message using my laptop on our flight back to Chicago, still marveling at the wonders of technology: my computer is calling out the letters into my headphones as I type, even way up here thousands of miles in the sky.

Pilot just came on telling us to shut down electronic devices, gotta go. Oh, but in case you were wondering: Hanni weighs 63 pounds.

Gillian’s Isle

Ask any guide dog user. They’ll tell you. When a guide dog encounters a fellow worker, the two dogs seem to act…well…respectful of each other.

We had a chance to experience this phenomenon at the Outer Banks of North Carolina last week. I did a book signing at Manteo Booksellers there, and a friend piloted his plane in for the event.

Yes, fans, you read that right. Someone actually flew in for the chance to purchase a copy of Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound. Our friend Brand is a physics professor at North Carolina State. He has his pilot’s license and owns a share of a small plane.

That's Bridgette, off-harness on the ground, and Gillian on the wing of Brand's plane as they arrived in Manteo.

Brand’s wife Sue came along for the ride, and they invited a friend to fly with them, too. Their friend, Gillian Lindt, was the first woman to serve as dean of faculty for the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Columbia University. Gillian is in her 70s now, and she has macular degeneration. She found a white cane frustrating, so she decided to train with a guide dog instead. From The Guideway, a publication of the Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind:

Lindt partnered with Bridgette, a Labrador/Poodle cross in 2005. “Bridgette is a perfect match for my lifestyle and personality,” she says.

Bridgette was also a perfect match for Hanni. Mike, Hanni and I stayed with our friends Katherine and Larry Bray during our four-night stay at the Outer banks. The Brays live right on the ocean, and they generously invited Brand and his brood to come over and share the ocean deck with us once the book signing was finished.

Katherine and Larry are dog lovers, and they marveled at the way Bridgette and Hanni lay motionless at our feet, eyeing each other up as we humans chatted away overhead. One couldn’t help but wonder what the two dogs thought of each other. I pictured them in one of those New Yorker cartoons, you know, the ones where readers are invited to write in with suggested captions.

That's Katherine Bray and I enjoying a glass of wine on Katherine and Larry's splendid oceanfront deck.

Needless to say, the Brays were tickled to provide a little R&R for not just one, but two working dogs. They spoiled us humans, too, supplying us with a tasty crushed lemonade/mint drink to enjoy. As Katherine pressed the chilled glasses into our hands, she said, “If y’all want vodka in there, too, just let me know!” Gillian was happy to take Katherine up on the offer. “I’m not driving home,” she laughed. And after all, it was yappy hour.

Beach Bums

That’s Dora–my first Seeing Eye partner–off duty during one of our countless strolls on the beach.

This Thursday Mike, Hanni and I head to North Carolina. I’m doing a book signing at Manteo Booksellers on Saturday, and we’ll spend the rest of the time swimming in the ocean, eating fresh seafood, and visiting old friends

How’d we end up with friends in North Carolina? We used to live there! During the 1990s, Mike worked here in Illinois for an internet company called Spyglass. In his early days at Spyglass, Mike didn’t get a high salary or good benefits. He did, however, receive stock options. And when Spyglass went public in 1995, all of a sudden those pieces of paper were worth a whole lot of money. We decided then to do something we would have never, ever thought possible. We moved to a house on the ocean.

Dora worked until she was 12 and she lived to 17.

Our time on the beach was fabulous, full of simple pleasures. Without worrying about obstacles in my path, I was able to run by myself. Listening for the waves, I’d point my shoulders in their direction and spring towards them like a little girl. Sometimes I’d race to the beach with Dora, my first Seeing Eye dog. She always won.

When the cold and rain arrived in December, Mike stoked the fireplace and I spent quiet time working on writing my first book, Long Time, No See.

The dream ran its course. Before we left Illinois, I wanted to believe I was the type of woman who would be forever happy living by the ocean: listening to books, sitting by the fire, reading, taking daily walks on the beach. Hard as it was to admit, I am not that romantic figure. In the end, two years of dreamy isolation was enough for me.

We made lovely friends in the Outer Banks, but we all lived far apart, and Nags Head had no public transportation. No sidewalks, either, which meant Dora and I were unable to get out by ourselves to do errands. Mike was responsible for getting groceries, banking, mailing packages at the post office, bringing us to doctor appointments. He had the time, and he mostly seemed to enjoy it. But I felt more dependent on others than I wanted to be, and I started feeling disabled.

It’s funny. On the beach or in the water, I enjoyed more of a sense of freedom of motion than I had since going blind. But the sound of the waves, the smell of the air, the feel of salt water on my skin…as fantastic and unforgettable as it all was, the ability to do all the other things by myself was more important. We left the ocean in 1999 and moved back to Illinois. We eventually settled here in Chicago, where public transportation and city sidewalks allow me to feel more independent than anywhere else we’ve lived since I lost my sight. But hey, the city gets a little exhausting sometimes! We’re looking forward to our trip back to the Outer Banks, hoping to return next week relaxed, a little sunburned and full of good beach stories.

Going, Going…Gone! Seeing Eye Online Auction

Earlier this year my publisher was asked to donate a copy of Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound to the Seeing Eye’s 80th Anniversary Online Auction. The idea was to include the book in a birthday party package. Well, Blue Marlin Publications didn’t donate just one copy of Safe & Sound. They sent five. The Seeing Eye was thrilled with the extra books and came up with all sorts of clever ways to auction them off.

One book is being auctioned off all on its own, not part of a package. Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound retails for $17.95. As of today, bids for the book at the Seeing Eye auction are up to $55. Blue Marlin’s generosity must be contagious.

One of the other donated books is included in a birthday party package, just like the Seeing Eye had originally intended:

Children’s birthday party at Seeing Eye downtown center.

Each child will spend time with a puppy to learn obedience exercises and enjoy fun play time. The party includes interactive games with the puppies and their raisers plus activities like “pin the tail on the Seeing Eye dog.” The guest of honor will receive a custom-designed birthday cake from Morristown’s Swiss Chalet Bakery, photos of the event taken by The Seeing Eye’s official photographer and Manager of Instruction & Training John Keane, festive decorations, and a gift bag that includes a book by Seeing Eye grad Beth Finke called “Safe and Sound,” a DVD of Disney’s 1967 series about The Seeing Eye called “Atta Girl, Kelly!”, a plush Seeing Eye puppy, puppy stickers, and other surprise gifts.

Two of the donated books are included with homemade blankets:

• Specially Designed Seeing Eye 80th Anniversary quilt
  

  This beautiful hand-pieced and hand-quilted anniversary lap quilt features star blocks in cranberry red, burnt orange, and forest green on a background of nine-patch blocks. Several of the fabrics used are in dog- and dog-related prints in colors of browns and tans. A section along the border reads: “The Seeing Eye – Leading the Way for 80 Years 1929 – 2009.” As a special bonus, the winning bidder will also receive a copy of Seeing Eye graduate Beth Finke’s award-winning children’s book, Hanni and Beth: Safe and Sound.

• Crocheted Afghan Plus Award-Winning Children’s Book
  

  Curl up under this cozy, hand-crocheted afghan made by the mother of a Seeing Eye graduate. The afghan measures 48″ x 48″ and was created in shades of midnight blue, azure blue and white diagonal stripes. As a special bonus, this package also includes a copy of the hardcover children’s book by Seeing Eye graduate Beth Finke. “Hanni & Beth: Safe & Sound,” is the winner of the ASPCA Henry Bergh Children’s Book Award of 2008.

The piece de resistance, however, is that our book is included with a package that lets the winning bidder name a Seeing Eye dog after him-or-her self!

The Seeing Eye Breeding Station Tour for 2

This, of course, will include some play-time with puppies in the special playroom designed to introduce pups to the sounds, textures, and experiences
of the world they soon will encounter.

And be sure to decide which puppy most pulls at your heartstrings, because you will have the chance to name one of the puppies you meet on this special day. You and the pup will be photographed, and you’ll receive a framed photo of the event.

Additional gifts with this item? An overnight stay at the Westin Governor Morris Hotel in Morristown, dinner at the hotel’s Copeland Restaurant, a chocolate dog bone from Morristown’s Enjou Chocolat, and a gift bag that includes, guess what? An award-winning children’s book by Seeing Eye grad Beth Finke!

There’s all sorts of other cool stuff being auctioned off, too: getaway vacationss, passes to see the Colbert Report, lunch with Betty White, baskets of gourmet chocolates, even a year’s supply of Eukanuba dog food! Bidding Ends on Sunday, September 13 at 10:00 pm EDT – sign up now to jjoin the fun, donate to a GREAT cause and…bid up the price on our book!