![\"\"](\"http:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/kate-flag-150x150.jpg\")
Guide Dog Chronicles:<\/p>\nGuide Dog Chronicles:<\/p>\n
Peyton and Beyond<\/p>\n
By Kate Chamberlin<\/p>\n
Journal entry: Friday, October 19, 2012<\/p>\n
It started with my 10-1\/2 year old guide dog, Peyton Grace, tripping, falling and sliding down the six, wooden steps to the main level.\u00a0 several weeks ago, Dave had to carry\u00a0 her down the stairs, so she could go outside to piddle and park.\u00a0 We stapled a carpet runner on the stairs to help her get a better grip. Sometimes, she\u2019d whine before slowly climbing up the stairs to bed. Her joints were no longer helped by the glucosimin pills.\u00a0 Her back end was getting too stiff and sore to guide comfortably.\u00a0 It was time to think of the unthinkable: retirement.<\/p>\n
During the past 8-1\/2 years Peyton Grace and I have been together, we\u2019ve flown to Tennessee to attend my nephew\u2019s wedding.\u00a0 We\u2019ve made several trips to California to visit our\u00a0 son and his family.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Once, we even took three grandchildren with us to CA.\u00a0 We have been to schools, Scouts, church groups, and other\u00a0 venues for Feely Can and Sniffy Jar Presentations.\u00a0 We have raised two grandchildren until they were able to be adopted back by their birth mother.\u00a0 She has provided me with fodder for numerous free-lance articles that have been published.\u00a0 The Parishioners of our church and the ladies at DAR have all learned to admire my guide dogs from afar, knowing that my safety depends on their not distracting my working dog.<\/p>\n
I have trusted my life to this beautiful, 60-pound Yellow Lab trained by Melissa Reed at Upstate Guide Dog Association\u00a0 for almost a decade.\u00a0 She has taken care of me and I\u2019ll take care of her in her retirement years.<\/p>\n
Since Upstate Guide Dogs is no longer available, I applied to Guiding Eyes for the Blind, in Yorktown Heights, NY.\u00a0 My first four guide dogs were from GEB and I feel a loyalty to them.\u00a0 Bev Clayman tentatively put me on the home training waiting list, but warned me it would be 18 to 24 months before they could get to me.\u00a0 It\u00a0\u00a0 would also depend on the Field Reps evaluation of my situation.<\/p>\n
Lisa Derleth came out one morning when, fortunately, the weather was very nice for a mid-October day\u00a0 in upstate NY.\u00a0 Peyton Grace slowly walked me down and around the cul-de-sac of my street as Lisa filmed us from the back and front.\u00a0 Then, we drove into town, where she filmed us crossing the street with the traffic light in picturesque, downtown Walworth.\u00a0 The video will be sent to a GEB panel to evaluate if Peyton is ready to retire and how well we work together. Lisa also took me on a \u201cjuno walk\u201d, using her GPS to determine what would be a comfortable pace and pull for me.<\/p>\n
Lisa said she\u2019d recommend issuing another guide dog to me, but warned that because I am elderly and do not have a \u201cfixed route\u201d I take everyday, and no full-time employment to keep a young dog active and interested,\u00a0 I\u2019m not a top priority candidate.<\/p>\n
It is true that I\u2019m neither 29, nor use public transportation to go to a full-time job, nor have toddlers hanging on to my skirts, I tend to disagree with her assessment.\u00a0 I am not the ancient couch potato\u00a0 she seems to imply. My new status as an empty nester will enable me to travel more and volunteer my time and experience in ways never before possible. A\u00a0 well-trained guide dog would enable me to hold my head up high and step out with confidence, not to mention the positive reflection on the guide dog movement and\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 enhanced perception the public would have of a senior citizen who just happens to have a disability.\u00a0 .<\/p>\n
But, now we wait for what the fates will bring.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Guide Dog Chronicles: Peyton and Beyond By Kate Chamberlin Journal entry: Friday, October 19, 2012 It started with my 10-1\/2 year old guide dog, Peyton Grace, tripping, falling and sliding down the six, wooden steps to the main level.\u00a0 several weeks ago, Dave had to carry\u00a0 her down the stairs, so she could go outside […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=671"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":675,"href":"https:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671\/revisions\/675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}