[Critique Group 1] Leonard's comments on DeAnna's sub

[tuchyner5 at aol.com]

Excellent        




 


DeAnna sub for April




 


Hi everyone, I needed to pull something togetherfor a reading on Saturday. I was supposed to read something humorous, soreworked some things and produced the following.



 



Shadow



 



Good evening, this is DeAnna Quietwater Noriega,author of Fifty Years of walking with friends. Actually, it will be 53 yearsthat I have shared my life with Guide dogs in July. One of the things I havelearned is that getting to know who each dog is and the way they think is keyto becoming a good guide dog handler and partner in an excellent team. Today, Iwant to take you with me in getting acquainted with a new canine friend.



Here she comes now. She is a little black labwith a case of the wiggles just entering the room.  “What is your nameyoung lady? Yes, you in the dog suit!"



 



"Oh!  Sorry! I didn't know you meantme when you said K9! I'm Shadow and this is my girl, Cecily.  Lastsemester she took an oral interpretation of children's literature class, so Iknow K. stands for kitty and I haven't seen even one kitty, let alone nine ofthem here.”



 



  “How do you like being a guide dog?”



 



“Oh, it's really hard work!  At college,people used to get out of my way, but when we went to Conventions, you had towatch out for swinging sticks and nobody moved to let you get by!  But alot of them wore shorts and summer clothes, and I figured out that if you put acold nose on their bare legs, they jump



ed and you could get through.” 




 


That’s funny. 




 


“It must be different living with a blind personand having to look out for her all of the time.”



 



“Well, I trained for this job and I like beingable to go everywhere with her. I feel sorry for those poor dogs who have tospend all day guarding their yards and barking rude things at me as I go by. 




 


I sure know what that is like.. 




 


I think they are jealous seeing me walking downthe street in my uniform. They wish they had a job like mine as a professionalmobility assistant. It is a little harder these days because my girl mostlydoesn’t leave home much. Part of my job is to take care of her mental healthand I think she is suffering from agoraphobia. I do try to cheer her up andtake every opportunity to get her to play with me. There is nothing like a goodgame of tug or catch to cheer a person up. I am a little confused about thisCovid thing. My Cecily has begun to wear a muzzle when we go walking. I wonderif she is afraid, that she might bite someone. The people we pass wear muzzlestoo. When we approach them, she makes me step off the sidewalk and move severalpaces into the grass. We no longer go shopping or to meet friends. She spendsmore time on her computer and phone. The things we need are delivered to ourdoor. I have to bark to alert her to get them. It’s lucky I am a versatileassistant, because except for taking her out for exercise, I don’t get muchwork requiring my professional training. I miss getting together with ourfriends.



Despite all of my skill in dealing with hermental health, I fear her agoraphobia and hostility towards other humansdoesn’t seem to be getting better. I am also puzzled why she goes into thisindoor rain room every day. She washes off all her own great smell which isabsolutely my favorite, and then tries to disguise it even more with funny fakeflower ones.  Why would anyone want to stand in the rain on purpose?” 




 


Great description of a shower. 



Also the complaints of not smelling natural isprobably right.




 


We were almost late today coming on thecomputer.  See that bulge in Cecily’s coat pocket?  That’s my newball!  We were walking and had to go past the place where people hitlovely fuzzy balls with these webbed paddle things and I saw a ball just lyingin the middle of the sidewalk.  I wagged my whole rear end I was sopleased someone left it there for me and scooped it up.  Cecily must havethought it was something to eat because she stopped and put her hand under myface and said “out!”  I gave it to her and she must have wanted to playbecause she threw it down the street.  I ran after it and Cecily came toobecause she was still holding my leash.  I didn’t know she could run sofast.  I caught it on the third bounce and Cecily said, dumb dumbdumb.  I don’t think she meant me though because she was hitting herselfon the head.  




 


Funny.




 


She said out again and I thought we might playsome more, but she put my ball in her pocket and we hurried to get home. Ohgoody, I see some cheese and crackers on the floor over there with my name onthem! Cecily must have dropped them from her lunch.”



 



"But Shadow, aren't you supposed to ignorefood on the floor?  Won't you get in trouble?"



 



"I've learned that if I dive for it, Cecily



puts that horrible, nasty Gentle Leader on me,but if I lie down like I am being a good girl and stretch my neck, I can get itno problem. So, if you will excuse me, I need to go clean up the floor beforeCecily steps on the cheese and grinds it into the carpet, then I will need alittle nap. Bye-bye!”




 


Funny. 




 


“There you have it. What a guide dog thinksabout in these times of isolation and community connection via computer.”



   



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