“…Eyeballs…” Book II: 25. Guide Dog Chronicles: Puppy Raisers

Hey! You Got Eyeballs In There?

By Kate Chamberlin

As Grace grows up, some of her stories are happy, some trying, some enlightening, and a few themes are sad, but, they’re all the warp and woof of what goes into the tapestry of life we call Family. The daily living skills and techniques demonstrated by the fictional characters in these stories are valid, tried and true.

Book II:  The Teenagers

#10. Bad News

#11.  Grace’s Day One

#12 Knight With Shining Flatware

#13. The Locker Fiasco

#14. Lost In Thought

#15. The Musician

#16. Day Two And Beyond

#17. First Date

#18. The Zipper Creep

#19. Making Up

#20. Mall Cruising

#21. And More Questions

#22. Homecoming Dance

#23. Loyalties

#24. Sea Dragons

#25. Guide Dog Chronicles: Puppy Raisers

It was so cool. I couldn’t stop wagging my tail, which waggled my whole body. Last week Grace took me to see my favorite puppy raisers. It had been two whole years since I was taken away from them to go to the guide dog training center. As soon as I got out of the car in their driveway, I remembered where I was. It was such fun being there again. Have you ever had to move to another home and leave everyone you knew behind?

I’ve had to do that many times. After I was born at the Puppy Breeding Center, I stayed with my Mother until I could drink from a bowl. I was taken home by a girl who was a 4-H member in a town far from my Mother.

I was not a happy puppy then because the girl left me alone a lot. I wanted to play and be friends but she had other things to do that were more important than me. I began to feel really sad and angry. I nipped at people when they came near me. I was trying to let them know I needed a friend too. After a month, the girl’s Mother called the Puppy Breeding Center to tell them I should be put in another Puppy Raiser’s home. And that is how I came to live with my favorite puppy raisers, Tim and Rosemary.

I was scared to go to another place where I would not know anyone. I just wanted a friend to play with, a full tummy, and a comfy place to sleep. Rosemary said I was so skinny and small when she first saw me she thought I was a Terrier, not a Golden Retriever. I snapped at her, but, in time, I came to realize that if anyone was going to be my friend, I had to stop nipping at everyone.

I wanted to please my new Puppy Raisers, so, I tried hard to do what they wanted me to do.

One time they gave me a flat, plastic plate like thing with edges on it. There wasn’t any food or anything on it. I had no idea what it was. Then they threw it onto the lawn a short ways away from us. Tim ran after it and called me. I thought it was not too bright of him to throw it away if he really had wanted it! When we got to where the thing landed, he picked it up and threw it again. This time I raced him to it. I couldn’t figure out how to throw it so I sat on it and started to chew it. He tickled me until I got up and ran away with it. He chased me and we had a great time with the toy he called a Frisbee.

I learned how to do a lot of things during the ten months I lived with Tim and Rosemary. I liked walking to the meadow with Tim at piddle and park time. We would run and play. Sometimes he even let me go by myself. They taught me not to take anything from the table; just to eat from my own bowl and not from the cats’ bowls, and to stay off the furniture. I had my own spot to sleep in at night. I liked it best when we rode in the car. I would go into school with them. Tim was a Sixth Grade teacher and Rosemary was a First Grade teacher. I liked being with the children. Going to school with Tim and Rosemary was my favorite thing to do.

They already had an old cat, a kitten, and another puppy from the Puppy Breeding Center. The kitten was OK and fun to play with. The old cat did not seem to like me too much and would sit on the window sill teasing me until I barked. I wasn’t supposed to bark, so, I would get into a lot of trouble because of that darn cat.

The dog wasn’t too cool either. When I first came, I would eat my food slowly and sometimes rest between bites. Well, that big dog would budge right in, finish my food, and get back to his own bowl before Rosemary could catch him.

That bully would take my NylaBone, too. I didn’t really like to chew on that bone, though, because, it would get little prickles on it that would poke my gums and that hurt. I’d stop chewing for half a second and, zip, that big dog would have my bone. I figured, it wasn’t worth fighting over. The big dog went back to the training center for final training three months after I arrived on the scene, so, I had Tim and Rosemary (and the cats) all to myself.

My puppy raisers and I had fun learning good behavior in all types of places and situations. I had a lot of visits to the vet to make sure I was healthy and developing properly. Usually the 4-H people took me there and Tim and Rosemary took me everywhere else. Several times a person from the Training Center would come to test me on things like what I did when they tried to startle me with loud sounds and how I behaved if I had to walk alongside a moving car.

One day after dinner, Tim and Rosemary took me to someone’s home where I had to stay over-night in a crate next to two other dogs. I was miserable and lonely. I even missed that stupid old cat! In the morning, we were put into the back of a van and taken to the Training Center. I felt lost and once again abandoned and unloved.

I didn’t know it at the time, but, it was the beginning of the three months that would   give meaning to the rest of my life.

kathryngc1@verizon.net