My late Tisha used to get those accidents when age caught up with her. I can 
remember those anxious moments and trips to the vet. Putting her down was 
the hardest thing, but the kindest to her. Yet if she could be young again 
I'd take her back in a heartbeat.

Now I have Astrid and though she's clever she didn't take to being a guide 
dog kindly. I had her 3 years and during those years she let me fall down 
curbs, cross the road diagonally so I'd be on the wrong corner of the 
intersection and just got me lost. The last time she made me trip over a 
concrete block near a school entrance which blocked cars from parking there. 
The shock was so big and the humiliation to fall with a guide dog while my 
colleagues walked the same route behind me was even bigger. So an email was 
sent to the training school and goodbye Astrid, good riddance!

And then came the quiet house, no dog appearing for mealtimes, the empty 
dog-bed, and struggling to walk the route to work with a cane along a gravel 
surface (where large stones, grass, pedestrians' debris and small shrubs 
litter the area)! Lastly, most horrid of all being told the list is so long 
and there's no suitable dog for me so I might have to wait as long as 9 
months!

Astrid thought she' was off on holiday with a trainer and discovered: "this 
is boot camp!" Astrid was bitten by 1 young trainee whose food bowl she 
smelled and run over by another oversized male Lab! So, after almost 3 
weeks' training she wanted to come home and I was too happy to try again.

To make the already long story short, I can say that that training spell 
happened 11 months ago and though she has her weaker points, Astrid has been 
more of a help to me.

Now everyone has been able to share in my guide dog woes and I can only add 
that I'll pray for Jeremy's. God allowed his dog to retire and my Granny to 
face this surgery. Don't know why, but will just have to trust He knows 
best.

Coco