Hearing

In 2007/8 I was treated for Breast Cancer (Invasive Ductile Carcinoma).  Yeah, I lost my hair.  Yeah, I lost 9.2 lbs of boobies.  (I wear prosthetics for weddings and funeral now.  That's it.). I had an ototoxic drug known as Adriomycin and it took a bit, but, my hearing started to fade.  There are certainly people who are way more hearing impaired than me.   But, it has reached a level where phone use is almost impossible.  I prefer texting.  Less stress.

About 2 years ago I met a lady with a seeing eye dog.  We spoke briefly.  But chatting with her convinced me that I would benefit from applying to have a Hearing Dog.  So I talked it over with a friend.  Made application to be asked for the real application.  A few months later, I got the big application.  It took me about 2-3 months to complete all the requirements.  I had to write a biography.  I had to have my doctor give a statement of my health, ability to participate, and all sorts of stuff to assure these folks that I would be able to manage having a dog.  The application itself was lengthy.  Finally I had everything together, and I mailed it in.

That triggered a phone interview.  Which worked its way through the process.  Next came an in-person interview in Orlando.  After that I tried really, really hard to be patient.  I wasn't doing a great job of it.  As a last thought when I filled out and sent in the official application, I put a yellow sticky on the front page.  It was along the lines of, " Now that I am retired, I can come and go on shorter notice, in case someone should not be able to come at the last minute.  I got an email and phone call on a Thursday.  Was I still interested in getting a Hearing dog?  Someone had dropped out.  Usually they give folks 6-8 weeks notice, but if I could get to Santa Rosa, California in time to start Monday classes, there was, indeed, a last minute opening.  So I did a web search for airline tix and bought them.  I reserved a rental car at San Francisco Airport.  Sunday morning my unbelievably kind son-in-law hauled me to Hartsfield and I began a new adventure.

Monday morning I had breakfast, and was at the table with. Pen and a notebook.   There were didactic (lectures) lesions.  There were lessons in how to be a handler of a dog (using a real dog).  There were also lessons on how to be a handler with fake dogs.  And everyday, there was a quiz over what we just learned.  

Lunch was provided, and was always lovely.  Then we would go right back to lecture, practice, practice with a fake or real dog.  Tuesday was a BIG day because that was when we would have the opportunity to train with a couple different dogs.  The trainers would make observations about our human/dog interactions.   In a class of six people, they had about eight dogs that were moved around the next few days until the day came they would announce  which human was paired with which dog.  Very exciting moment.  This was the moment when they brought our assigned dog out to us, and so this photo is right after I learned that Brooklyn would be my new buddy!