As I neared my home yesterday evening, a man called out from the other side of the road, “Do you have a light, please?”
“No, sorry”, I replied and continued on my way home.
As I walked on, I heard the voice of a young woman, “no, don’t, it’s a blind dog!”
Being registerd blind, I wondered what the point would be of me having a “blind dog”. One hears of the blind leading the blind. However, I, having no desire to become intimately connected with a telegraph pole or other such obstacle will stick with my trusty guide dog, Trigger!
The above occurance is far from being an isolated one. Indeed I have lost count of the number of occasions on which people have refered to my guide dogs (I am now working with my fourth) as “blind dogs”. My heart goes out to all those visually challenged dogs manfully leading their owners to who knows where. A medal should be struck in their honour and, of course the blind who entrust themselves to these fine animals should also be honoured for their … bravery!
To be serious for a moment, the evening was dark and the panic in the young woman’s voice made me conjecture (perhaps in error) that her companion might have been up to no good and, seeing that I was accompanied by a guide dog the lady’s conscience kicked in. As I say, I could be barking up entirely the wrong tree here. I was, nonetheless extremely glad to reach home yesterday evening.
K Morris - Poet 
I’m sure she was merely telling her not to start petting or distracting Trigger. Most people understand not to do that now.
In retrospect I believe you may well be correct in your surmise, Mick. However, it being dark I felt somewhat nervous which may have caused me to jump to the wrong conclusion. Thanks for your comment.
I certainly understand the nervousness, Kevin. I’m sure I would have felt the same in your place.
An unfortunate choice of words. My hearing impaired friend has a “deaf dog”. People are funny at times. Glad you got home OK.
Thanks for your comment, Darlene. Perhaps there should be a society/club for all those “deaf” dogs helping those with hearing impairments, and a similar organisation for “blind” dogs, who do such noble work assisting the visually impaired …
I can see it now…
Trigger: “Hey, Kevin, watch out for the sign here. I just bumped my nose on it, and it really hurt. Wouldn’t want you to do the same to your knee or anything.”
You: “Thanks, Trigger. By the way, you forgot to warn me about a lampost a little while back. I hurt my arm on it as we were passing.”
Trigger: “Sorry. Must have managed to avoid that one. My nose is grateful to your arm for taking the bump instead.”
As for the woman: hopefully she was just worrying about her companion stopping Trigger from doing his job. I know from personal experience how uneasy it can make you when you can’t be entirely certain of the situation around you though, and am glad you and Trigger made it home safely.
Thanks for making me smile, Tori. Your comment was extremly funny! Yes, in retrospect I think that you are right – that the lady was worrying about her companion preventing Trigger from doing his job. Best, Kevin
Glad my comment made you smile.
Cute anecdote! You certainly have a good sense of humor in such a situation. 🙂
Thanks Jeff. As someone wise once remarked, “if you didn’t laugh, you would cry!”. All the best, Kevin