90 Years of Guide Dogs

Tags

Access, Awareness, Blind, Blindness, Disability, Dog, Earth Angels, Equality, Gratitude, Guide Dog, guidedog90, Hidden Disability, Labradoodle, Sight Loss, Thanks, Vision Impairment, Working Dog

90 years ago, the lives of people with sight loss was very different. Support was sometimes  non existent or at the very best limited. Children’s futures were restricted by what society thought a child or young person was capable of in relation to their sight. Society in general was more discriminative than inclusive as education around sight loss was still very patchy. In short, life plateaued for the majority of people with sight loss at a certain age and stage in life as potential remained a secret treasure that was rarely found. 90 years ago, life was very different for us all but  thanks to many movements to support people with sight loss, positive changes were essential in helping us live the enhanced lives we do today.

Arguably, Louis Braille started the ball rolling in 1824 as he developed Braille as a way to help himself enter into the sighted world of reading and communicating which has gone on to help an enormous amount of people with sight loss have equal access to the written word. The Blind Person’s Act in 1920  deepened the rights and welfare  of people with sight loss to be  protected    which was a huge step forward. It was the introduction of Guide Dogs in October 1931 however that really created change in the lives of individuals with sight loss the most.

Since the first partnership  90 years ago between the canine and human world, things have developed massively. 90 years on, the charity is now also helping children with sight loss as well as adults and does more than just train dogs for partnership. They educate, raise public awareness about sight loss, campaign and do so much more to help the lives of people with sight loss become enriched and limit free. The  Guide Dogs charity allows hope where there once was none and help bridge the gap between the sighted and sight loss world which is huge. They help nurture and train  these beautiful dogs that become our true best friends.

Life before Munch was tough. Living 39 years of my life with secret sight loss I learnt ways of keeping it hidden from people but it took a lot of time and energy. When you have never seen a face , just a blur and have never seen what is across the room from you, that is just life. How can you miss a picture on a wall that you do not know is there?   When that life became a little dangerous from all the falls, breaks, dislocations and many other injuries, it was time to admit I needed help. The help that I got was Minster who affectionately became known as Munch.

It has been nearly five years since I was partnered up with my hairy soul mate Minster Munch and there has never been a dull moment. Munch has been more than just practical help, he has become my matching odd sock. The Drama King that he is,  has almost made me forget I have sight loss as that part of me  now has a bouncer. I can stand down from my past  relentless reliance on memory that got me from a to b as I remembered each route in my head with a combination of muscle memory, counting and taking information from overloaded senses. He does all that now and more. Admittedly, on a rare occasion a passing squirrel may make his attention go elsewhere for a nanosecond but in general, he is now my lighthouse keeper to steer me away from danger.

Munch is my hairy little (ok more Shetland Pony sized ) soul mate who just happens to be a Guide Dog on the side. He deserves the best in life as he has changed my life and the life of my family forever. Guide Dogs are never just dogs, they are the special beings that complete us. Training more Minster Munch like heroes is costly and that is why around the country, there are numerous fundraising events during this month. If you would like to make a different, please visit http://www.guidedogs.org.uk to see how you can help. Thanks from the hairy and not so hairy partners across the land

The Windowsill Dwellers

Tags

Animal, Blind, Cats and Dogs, Disability, Dogs, Earth Angels, Guide Dogs, Labradoodle, Pets, Visual Impairement

Windowsill dwellers are the keepers of secrets across the land.

Their paws and derrieres rest easy as the rest of them stays alert.

From cornea to retina, images to the sighted ready the brain for what will come next.

Their responses tell us with lost vision, about the unseen world.

The enlivened bark that emerges from slumber means only one thing.

 A loved one has pulled up outside to come and give a belly rub to the Lord of the house.

His helicopter tail tells of euphoria of the expected guest, not the invasion of a blowing plastic bag.

These security guards are never off duty from their five-foot glass view from their castle that they live in.

The raise of a twitching ear from your feline friend, may mean a less friendly welcome to the observed.

The swish of their aggravated tail sweeping across your arm could be avian related.

Keeping their bird free paws on the windowsill safely inside is probably best for all involved.

A chin rub to distract may leave you gift free from the cat, but that bird will fly safely home that day.

These lighthouse keepers of hearth and home, give insight for us who cannot see.

As beautiful gargoyles keep us safe and happy, we fall in love with them more and more.

These bridges of unconditional love between the sighted and sight loss world always support us.

Thank you, windowsill dwellers, for showing us a world that we cannot see.

The Deception Of Looks

Tags

Acceptance, Acts of Kindness, Animal and children, Appearance, Blessings, Blind, Childrens Acceptance, Diversity, Earth Angels, Gratitude, Hidden Disability

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I know what you are thinking. It is a Yeti croissant but no, you would be wrong!

That is the thing with assuming with our eyes, we never really get it right no matter how hard we try. We can never utterly understand what our eyes are tricking us into believing, as we only really see one perspective of an object that fits in with our world belief. Being led around by my hairy soul mate Munch lets people think that he is working for me, whereas anyone who knows him will know that I really work for him. Leading me to a place we need to go, results in a treat or two being eagerly hoovered up and me giving him at least a ten-minute worshipping ritual, telling him how he is the best living being ever in the world. We have found our power balance in our relationship and let us just say it is far from equal. Anyone with a Labradoodle knows that the power always lays with them and never with us.

The deception of looks alone has led us to many a faux pas in our four years together. From being mistaken as  Munch’s trainer as I “didn’t look blind enough to have a Guide Dog” (???) to being asked where my collection bucket was for the imaginary  fundraising collection someone though I  was doing as a fully sighted person with a Guide Dog,  assumptions can be wrong. Assuming Munch’s innocent face is incapable of being one of the world’s most notorious ball thief, is also another misconception. Maybe now is not the time to go into his known alias of “Good Boy” that everyone calls him when really, one of my friends knows him as the Pasty Thief that gently and lovingly alighted a pasty from her three year old daughters hand just as it was about to be transported to her mouth. A swift pasty replacement later and all was forgiven but the name has still stuck.

For me, one of the most infuriating misconceptions in the world today is when people criticize the “youth of today” from the narrative of the media alone without enough experience to make up their own minds about judging a whole section of society. Admittedly, I am slightly biased having worked with children and young people for the last twenty-six years on and off, but at least I have a privileged insight into their world. Working in schools with a Guide Dog brings with it many comments being directly and indirectly aimed at me. Some are hilarious, some are tactful, whilst others are said filter free but I for one love variety, so all are welcomed. There are times however that are heart melting such as the one  that happened last week.

Asking Munch to “find the steps” for us to lead us to our room, he quickened the pace before stopping at the end of the steps for my foot to find our starting point. Having the fuzzy triple visioned blurry light colour ahead of us seemingly reaching up to the heavens (which the sighted call stairs), we began climbing. I was aware of two pairs of footsteps ahead of me going in the same direction and held back a little for us not to get in their way. Mid climb, one pair of light footsteps stopped and began coming back down. Just as we were about to move to the side to let the lively feet and attached body to pass us, they stopped just in front of us. A sweet-sounding teenage boy seemed to lean towards us and ask, “Excuse me, do you need any help at all?”

It took me a while to wonder why he  would ask if I needed help? I began to wonder if I was walking in the wrong direction into a forbidden part of the school  or if something horrible had attached to me on our way up the stairs when I remembered I couldn’t see and had a Guide Dog with me. I know it sounds weird but if you have never been able to see clearly from birth and everything is always a blur, you know no different and it is never really an issue. This is my world where I forget I cannot see as I have never know any different. It is when I am totally oblivious to the fact that it is a disability, there is always a gentle reminder that appears to remind me that it is. When I walk with Munch by my left hand side, I totally forget he is a Guide Dog as I chatter away to him asking him to turn left or right or find doors and objects whilst praising him as we go. The problem when you have sight loss living in a sighted world is that you sometimes forget that people can see.

When my brain finally caught up with what the sweet boy meant, my heart melted. He must have seen someone with an obvious disability (even though I was too away with the fairies to remember I had one myself) and took time out of his day to ask if there was anyway he could help. He did it so discreetly, lowering his  tone not to draw attention which in itself showed what kind hearted soul he really was. I thanked him a lot for stopping to ask  but said we were fine. As he went on his way he told me to take care which I wished him back as my smile widened. There are more Earth Angels around us than we realized. This seemingly small interaction between a teenager from the Sighted world and a grandmother from the Sight Loss world spoke volumes about the world we live it.

To him, his kindness was a natural part of his being  . To me, his kindness was a gift that will get him so far in life that I hope his Karmic bank overflows. He saw me with a disability where I may have needed a bit of assistance. Whereas I saw myself as fully able bodied . We were both 100 % right  in that situation in our own ways. I hope that he always has someone around to help him if he ever needs it.

Everyday Earth Angels

Tags

Blessed, Earth Angels, Helpers, Kindness, Love, Thanks

The phone call that every parent dread arrived. “We are just waiting for the ambulance and he has been immobilized on the field as a precaution” his father calmly said. My son had a neck and back injury in rugby and they had stopped play. My accident-prone youngest son was no stranger to injuries and had called hospital his second home throughout his 15 years. This however sounded more serious than his usual mishaps.
Luckily a friend of mine was able to take me straight up to the rugby pitch 15 minutes away and I crossed my fingers that we would arrive in time for the ambulance. As soon as we arrived his father sent one of the players over to Munch and me to guide us to where he was on the field. We found my blurry outline of a son lying stretched out on the floor with the team’s physio holding his neck still to avoid further injury. Surrounding him was the coaches, some team mates and some concerned parents who had waited with him as they were concerned. The positive about having rugby loving people around you are that there will never be a dull moment as the banter keeps everyone’s spirits high, including my son’s. Nobody feels down on a rugby-players watch.

Attempting to make out which end was his head, and which was his feet, I finally found where his voice was coming from and kneeled beside him. Munch began whimpering and whining as he sensed something was wrong. As he attempted to go over to my son and lick him to health, his held him back and took him for a little walk as I stayed with my chilled-out son. Not even the pouring rain seemed to be bothering my son let alone the fact that pins and needles were spreading across his body. As everyone around him got more concerned during the 2 and a half hours the ambulance took to get to him, my son grew even more chilled out.

The kindness of those around him was so beautiful to witness as they brought him umbrellas to cover him, coats, a sleeping bag, hot water bottles and even a gazebo to put up over him. The physio from the opposing team stayed with him throughout and helped and took over from the team’s physio when she needed a break. Not once did anyone show anything but sheer compassion for my son and genuine concern for his well-being. If angels walked among us, this is what they would be like. The calmness and high spirits that passed between these kind souls kept my son in the belief that everything would be just fine. And it was.
After a neck brace and slide board transported my son by ambulance to the nearest hospital, all x rays showed that there were no fractures despite what was originally thought, luckily just soft tissue and muscular damage was caused alongside a slight knock in confidence on the field. As he waddled out of the hospital later that evening in pain, we all felt blessed that he was okay in comparison to how it could have turned out and feeling truly blessed that he has so many kind people around him that care for him.
Instead of going home for a Sunday roast or sneaking off for a quick pint, they choose to wait with him until the ambulance arrived and did not once moan.

Kindness is not something that has to be planned but something that happens naturally in times when nothing else would work. May each of these earth angels be blessed with nothing but kindness in their own lives as the world mirrors back what they give out. These true Earth Angels are the best.