Tag Archives: guide dogs

Chris Mccausland The UK’s Only Professional Blind Commedian

The August/September issue of RNIB’s Vision Magazine contains an interview with the UK’s only professional blind comedian, Chris Mccausland (http://dl.groovygecko.net/anon.groovy/clients/rnib/podcast/vision-aug-sept-14.mp3). Chris is perhaps best known for advertising Barclays talking ATM machine which is designed to help visually impaired people withdraw cash independently.

As a blind person I can relate to Chris when he says that he doesn’t wish his comedy to centre on his blindness because visual impairment is only a part of his character.

I would be a rich man if I had a penny for every time I had to smile, through gritted teeth at a joke entailing blindness. Don’t get me wrong, many jokes about blindness are funny but when, as a blind person you have heard the one about the blind man who was swinging a guide dog round his head in the supermarket for the hundredth time you just switch off because it is, quite frankly no longer funny!

(Much against my better judgement I will end with the joke refered to above:

A blind man goes into a supermarket and starts to swing his guide dog around by it’s lead.

“What are you doing?” demands the manager.

The blind man replies “I’m just looking around”. Groan, groan!).

Please Help Find Tess The Missing Guide Dog

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Below is the text of an e-mail which I have received from The Guide Dogs For The Blind Association (GDBA) regarding a 6-year-old guide dog which went missing in Scotland. GDBA are asking for the public’s help in reuniting owner and guide dog. As a guide dog owner myself I know very well the incredibly strong bond which develops between owner and dog. To me Trigger, my guide dog is not merely a mobility aid (although he does a fantastic job), he is also a close friend who accompanies me almost everywhere. If, by any chance you can help Guide Dogs please do contact them.

Many thanks,

Kevin

“You may have heard through the media about Tess, the guide dog who has gone missing.

The six-year-old black curly coated retriever disappeared while walking off-lead with her owner in Nairn, a seaside town about 16 miles east of Inverness.

Obviously this is an extremely distressing situation, particularly for the guide dog owner, and we are doing absolutely everything in our power to reunite

the partnership.

We have enlisted the help of local organisations and agencies in the effort to find Tess, including the police, dog wardens, veterinary practices and the

SSPCA (Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals).

We have been in touch with rail networks, as well as Royal Mail to get word out to postal workers and drivers.

An appeal was launched in local media shortly after Tess’s disappearance on 23 July and thousands of people have now got behind it on

Facebook

and

Guide Dogs volunteers and supporters have been playing a vital role in our appeal to help find Tess and we’d like to ask for your support too.

Although she went missing in Scotland, Tess could now be in any part of the UK, so we really do need everyone’s help to find her. If you see a dog who

looks like Tess for sale in your local area, or notice that someone has recently acquired a black curly coated retriever, or if you have any other concrete

information which may help us, please get in touch with us immediately on 0800 688 8409. Please do not reply directly to this email.

We are running a poster campaign to widen the appeal.

Please download our new official poster

and

share it on Facebook

Twitter,

or print it off and display it in your window (particularly if you live in Scotland).

The more people who support our appeal, the better our chances of finding Tess and reuniting her with her owner.

Jayne George

Director of Fundraising and Marketing”.

There’s Non So Blind As Those Who Can Not See

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There I was, minding my own business, strolling through the churchyard which lies opposite my flats when a wee small voice intruded into my consciousness,

“Can you see mate?”

I paused my guide dog Trigger waiting patiently at my side,

“Pardon?”

“Can you see?”

With a winning smile I responded,

“Are you stupid?” before continuing on my journey, Trigger leading the way.

They Shall Not Pass

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This morning, as usual I took my guide dog, Trigger to the park in order that he might fertilise the vegetation, (there is a wooded area away from where children congregate so his business card causes no issues)!

On the way home Trigger stopped dead in his tracks as there was a large vehicle blocking a drive which I needed to cross in order to continue on my way. “The vehicle will move out into the road once there is a gap in the traffick” I thought. However several gaps came and went but it remained immovable. I began cursing silently wondering whether I might be able to judge a break in the traffick, step off the kerb and negociate the vehicle without running the risk of ending up decorating the paint work of some ppassing car with colourful red splodges! Fortunately a man came to my rescue and assisted me to bypass the vehicle,

“Some stu …”.

“We where unloading something, sorry” my saviour said.

Oops, I wonder if he caught the gist of what I was starting to say,

“Some stupid person has parked their vehicle so that its blocking the pavement”! A Victor Meldrew moment on my part!

Sponsor A Guide Dog Puppy

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A video from the Guide Dogs For The Blind Association about sponsoring a guide dog puppy helping to provide independence to blind people, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCTcvbV1CHI&feature=youtu.be&Ref=email&dm_i=LDK,2A5ET,5B5CNX,89P3S,1. As a blind guide dog owner I have every reason to be grateful to Guide Dogs and those who sponsor them. I am currently on my fourth guide dog, Trigger who can be seen by clicking on my author page here, http://www.amazon.co.uk/K.-Morris/e/B00CEECWHY/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0.

Dogs Are Not Allowed

Cute photos of dog

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Two photographs of my guide dog, Trigger, working hard in the office!

Barking

The Return

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I have just returned from spending Christmas on my country estate in Oxfordshire. It was wonderful to see the old place with it’s rolling acres and a tear ran down my cheek as the faithful old butler Soames struggled, bent double under the weight of my luggage but that is, after all what servants are for …

In point of fact I spent a pleasant week with my mum and her partner in the city of my birth, Liverpool. There are, alas no rolling acres, just a small back garden in which my guide dog, Trigger soon made himself at home. On Christmas day we all, as is customary exchanged gifts. Even Trigger and my mum’s black Labrador, Lilley received presents. Not content with his own gift Trigger took it upon himself to eat a box of chocolates which had been left under the Christmas tree as a present for my mum. Not satisfied with the chocolates he enjoyed a tasty desert of … scented candle! Fortunately Trigger suffered no ill effects and he is, as I write sleeping at my feet.

Well I am now back in London and my mum’s dog, Lilley can breathe a sigh of relief as there is no hungry monster lurking in the shadows waiting to deprive her of her dinner!