<div style="font-size:10pt;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;color:black;"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
</w:Compatibility>
<w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel>
</w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]-->
<p class="yiv1454571558msonormal" style="text-align:center;text-indent:.5in" align="center"><b><u>This story really touched my heart. I was angry att the
man who stepped<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>on her. foot, and I felt
heart broken at her separation from you and her job.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I would like to see this chapter expanded
into a story of its own, with dialogue and detail. Even though you’ve taken a
journalistic approach, you have managed to tweek emotions out of it. Think of
what you could do if you expanded your tools.</u></b></p>
<p class="yiv1454571558msonormal" style="text-align:center;text-indent:.5in" align="center"><b> </b></p>
<p class="yiv1454571558msonormal" style="text-align:center;text-indent:.5in" align="center"><b> </b></p>
<p class="yiv1454571558msonormal" style="text-align:center;text-indent:.5in" align="center"><b><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Chapter 21</b></p>
<p class="yiv1454571558msonormal" style="text-align:center;text-indent:.5in" align="center"><b>Phoebe</b></p>
<p class="yiv1454571558msonormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in"> </p>
<p class="yiv1454571558msonormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in">Phoebe
was my third guide dog. I was able to arrange to leave Angelyn with my
in-laws in Phoenix
and fly on to The Seeing Eye in March of 1979. It would had to be then, or put
off getting a guide dog for another couple of years. I was expecting our second
child in August. </p>
<p class="yiv1454571558msonormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in"> </p>
<p class="yiv1454571558msonormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in">Phoebe
was a large black Labrador retriever. She took her work very seriously.
She refused to engage in anything so undignified as play. If I threw a
ball for her, she looked down her long nose in disgust. Her expression
clearly stated "I don't chase balls! I'm a guide dog!" No
matter when we started a route in training, she was determined to finish
first. She earned the name of Phoebe-the-flash from my classmates.
Her work style was to weave in-and-out without pausing. Once, we seemed
to be doing a lot of that swivel motion as we went down a block in Morristown. When we
reached the corner, she stopped at the down curb. She began rearing up and down
joyously. My trainer caught up and I asked what she was doing! He
laughed and said, "I think she is saying yahoo! Yahoo! yahoo!"
He continued, "She just worked a phenomenal block. She skirted a
painter on a ladder, an open man hole, and a drunk on crutches and she is so
proud of herself." I was four months pregnant It was
March and the Morristown
streets were icy. My instructor had not been Phoebe’s trainer. This happens
when an instructor borrows a dog from another instructor’s string because it is
a better match than any of the dogs in his own string. He also has the option
of drawing from dogs who have completed guide dog training but weren’t matched
in previous classes. Dogs who are held back to become breeders are kept up to
speed and may also go back into the pool of dogs waiting for a match. If none
of these dogs seem right for a student once they arrive in class, or the first
match in class isn’t working out, a dog just completing training may be
used. </p>
<p class="yiv1454571558msonormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in"> </p>
<p class="yiv1454571558msonormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in">My
instructor was a little concerned about my safety, since I was in my first
trimester of my pregnancy. I nearly gave him a heart attack, when I stepped off
a curb, my feet went out from under me and I did a belly-flop, slid out into
the street and almost under a city bus! As I scrambled up my horrified
instructor rushed to assist. “Are you hurt?” he gasped. </p>
<p class="yiv1454571558msonormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in">“No,”
I replied, “But the light is about to change and we'd better run for it or we
risk being flattened by that bus.” </p>
<p class="yiv1454571558msonormal" style="margin-left:1.0in;text-align:justify;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo2;tab-stops:list 1.0in"><span style="font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><u>I’ll bet that wasn’t your actuall language.</u></p>
<p class="yiv1454571558msonormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in">Phoebe
was unique because after being leash corrected for sniffing a pigeon, she did
traffic checks to allow those famous Morristown
pigeons, unsniffed of course, to pass by, before proceeding. </p>
<p class="yiv1454571558msonormal" style="margin-left:1.0in;text-align:justify;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo1;tab-stops:list 1.0in"><span style="font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><u>I assume leash corrected simply means that
she was pulled back from the pigeon she was sniffing.</u></p>
<p class="yiv1454571558msonormal" style="margin-right:.5in;text-align:justify"><b> </b></p>
<p class="yiv1454571558msonormal" style="text-align:justify">
Five months later, Phoebe rose from her rug to touch my cheek with a concerned
cold nose each time I felt a labor pain. She learned to guide me while I
towed a stroller </p>
<p class="yiv1454571558msonormal" style="margin-left:1.0in;text-align:justify;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo1;tab-stops:list 1.0in"><span style="font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><u>By store, I assume you mean a lot of
groceries.</u></p>
<p class="yiv1454571558msonormal" style="text-align:justify">behind me, while I
carried an infant in a front pack. The tougher the assignment, the faster
she wagged her tail. I remember her joy when she guided me through a
Japanese garden full of winding paths and little bridges. She was up for any
aedventure.</p>
<p class="yiv1454571558msonormal" style="margin-left:1.0in;text-align:justify;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo1;tab-stops:list 1.0in"><span style="font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><u>Adventure is misspelled.</u></p>
<p class="yiv1454571558msonormal" style="text-align:justify"> </p>
<p class="yiv1454571558msonormal" style="text-align:justify">Phoebe worked for
only four years. At a reception, a man stepped back on her paw. He shattered a
claw on her rightfront paw. It became infected and despite all the soaking,
wrapping and anti-biotics, wouldn’t heal. My vet was forced to remove the toe.
The infection continued and the vet sent samples to the university. They
reported she had developed bone cancer in two more of her toes. When her
foreleg had to be amputated to save her from the ravages of the cancer, I felt
there was no choice. We didn’t have the money to pay for the surgery she
needed. She had been a wonderful courageous friend. At home, she
walked with the affected paw raised. She continued walking on her painful
paw whenever she was in harness. I threw myself into finding Phoebe a
good retirement home and made arrangements to make payments on the vet bills. I
talked to everyone about needing to retire her. The mother of a child in my
Angelyn’s preschool class had wanted a dog for her three young boys. She
thought a large dog would be the best choice for rough active boys. She dreaded
having to housebreak a puppy. Although my girl would have continued to guide
despite the pain until she was too sick to work, she deserved a chance at a
happy career change and comfortable retirement. To date, this was my hardest
retirement to go through. I dropped off her food dishes and rug at her new home
on the morning I took her in for the surgery. I brought her there straight from
her release from the vet’s office. She was swathed in bandages and groggy with
pain medications. I accepted a cup of coffee and spent time explaining how to
take care of her to her new family. It was painful to leave because she kept
staggering from her rug to lie with her head on my foot. I stayed away for
several months. Finally, I attended a birthday party for one of the boys at a
city park. Phoebe ran to place her head on my lap and vocalized for several
minutes with her broad head in my lap. She seemed to be trying to tell me about
her adventures since we had last been together.</p>
<p class="yiv1454571558msonormal" style="text-align:justify">The family told me
about how she won at a neighborhood pet dog event. She had worn sunglasses and
a bikini and had done basic obedience things like sit, lie down and stay on
command. She had kept the youngest child from leaving the front yard, and she
stood guard between a scissor salesman and the children when he came into the
yard. </p>
<p class="yiv1454571558msonormal" style="text-align:justify"> </p>
<p class="yiv1454571558msonormal" style="text-align:justify">When the party came
to an end, I picked up the harness for my new guide dog and Phoebe thrust her
head through the yoke, offering to take up her role as guide dog, even on three
legs. Of course this wasn’t possible. She walked beside me back to where our
car was parked next to her new family’s truck. She stood there looking back and
forth until one of her boys called to her. She ran to jump into the truck. She
was thirteen-years old when her family moved out of state and we lost track of
each other. During those seven years of retirement, she worked to be a good nanny
for three active boys, learned to eat lobster thermidor and sleep on beds. </p>
<p class="yiv1454571558msonormal" style="margin-left:1.0in;text-align:justify;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo1;tab-stops:list 1.0in"><span style="font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><u>The scene<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">
</span>of her trying to leave with you is heartbreaking. But there was relief
when she responded to one of her boys. If this were shown in cinema, the whole
audience would be crying. What were you going through dujring this scenario.</u></p>
<p class="yiv1454571558msonormal" style="text-align:justify">Phoebe taught me
that any task undertaken and accomplished well is a thing to celebrate. She
helped me to learn to put my dog’s needs ahead of my own and to look until I
found the best solution to retire my guide dogs.</p>
<p class="yiv1454571558msonormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Calibri"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">_______________________________________________<br>
Group1 mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:Group1@bluegrasspals.com">Group1@bluegrasspals.com</a><br>
<a href="http://bluegrasspals.com/mailman/listinfo/group1" target="_blank">http://bluegrasspals.com/mailman/listinfo/group1</a></p>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156">
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object
classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id=ieooui></object>
<style>
st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }
</style>
<![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-ansi-language:#0400;
mso-fareast-language:#0400;
mso-bidi-language:#0400;}
</style>
<![endif]--></div>