Guide dog leads man to safety after earthquake

That's Nigel, my co-worker.

After hearing about the earthquakes in Japan yesterday, this story is particularly poignant. One of my co-workers at Easter Seals Headquarters is from New Zealand. Wellington, to be exact. Earlier this week Nigel (don’t you think that’s a great name? I do!) sent me a story he saw in a New Zealand paper about a guide dog named Kiwi. The eight-year-old Labrador/Retriever cross led his blind companion Blair McConnell safely out of an office building after last month’s earthquake in Christchurch. Kiwi stayed on task until a stranger gave the shaken pair a ride home. The story was heartwarming, of course, but what I found particularly interesting was this part of the article :

Kiwi’s bravery is already the stuff of urban legend. The story goes that the dog guided his master on foot across town to his home,
which has left McConnell feeling “a bit of a fraud”, knowing he got a ride, but: “I’m quite sure he would have walked me home that day if he had needed to.” 

This is the kind of quirky thing editors at Bark magazine just love. I contacted the blog moderator there to see if she might want me to write a guest post about Kiwi, and she said, “Sure!”

What? You call yourself a dog lover, and you’ve never heard of The Bark?! Here’s a description of the four-color glossy magazine from their web site:

Taking the magazine’s slogan to heart—Dog Is My Co-Pilot—Bark became the first magazine to tap into the exploding phenomena of dog culture and lifestyle, focusing on the growing bond between individuals and their pet companions. Bark’s impeccable pedigree includes publishing many of today’s most acclaimed authors, including Ann Patchett, Augusten Burroughs, Rick Bass, Amy Hempel, and Pulitzer Prize winning poet Mary Oliver. 

I’ve published a few articles for The Bark, too, and it’s always a thrill to say I write for the same magazine Ann Patchett writes for! You can read my guest blog about Kiwi at The Bark’s site and link to other Bark stories there, too—if you like dogs, trust me, you’ll like The Bark.

Bloggin’ at The Bark

Hanni is my co-pilot. (Photo by Kaitlyn Cashman)

A story in the San Francisco Weekly last week described Tita, a Chihuahua service dog who works with a man suffering from bipolar disorder. A happy, feel-good story, except for one thing.

Tita bites people.

“She’s vicious,” Esler says with a smile, cradling the dog, which licks his face with abandon.

Once the story hit the newsstands, I was contacted by the blog moderator at The Bark. She wanted to know if I’d be willing to write a guest post about the service dog who bites.

What? You call yourself a dog lover, and you’ve never heard of The Bark?! Here’s a description of the four-color glossy magazine from their web site:

Taking the magazine’s slogan to heart—Dog Is My Co-Pilot—Bark became the first magazine to tap into the exploding phenomena of dog culture and lifestyle, focusing on the growing bond between individuals and their pet companions. Over the past ten years, Bark has chronicled the America’s love affair with dogs, the evolving status of canine pets and their role in society, as well as the incredible rise in services and products. Bark has become the recognized expert on the social/cultural world of dogs in America, and what they mean to us.

Bark’s impeccable pedigree includes publishing many of today’s most acclaimed authors including Ann Patchett, Augusten Burroughs, Rick Bass, Amy Hempel, and Pulitzer Prize winning poet Mary Oliver.

Hmm. Must be a proofreading error there. Somehow they left award-winning Children’s book author Beth Finke off that list. Because, of course, I’ve published a few articles in The Bark, too. It’s always a thrill to be contacted by their staff — it gives me the opportunity to brag that I write for the same magazine Ann Patchett writes for! You can read my guest blog at The Bark’s site and link to other Bark stories there, too—if you like dogs, trust me, you’ll like The Bark.