For those of you who don’t know, my dad is 100% blind. I have a lot to say on the subject, involving the realities created by being handicapped/alternately-abled, but that’s not what I want to focus on now. Instead I want to tell you that my dad got a new Guide Dog and that his name is Nels and that he is So Good.
Ha had another Guide Dog when I was growing up, Jesse, and that dog was The Best Dog Ever, but this dog is pretty great, although when I first met him he was doing that thing where he was in harness (if a dog is in harness it means he’s working – in this case, guiding) but he was also like IMADOG IMADOG IMADOG and he was super distracted and overstimulated, which is Not What Is Supposed To Happen when a dog is working. The only thing I thought was ‘Holy Shit, if this dog is always this disconcerted he’s going to wander into traffic and get my dad killed.’
But then Nels chilled out, and he’s really good at working and my dad loves him and my mom loves him and I love going over to their house and watching his entire body wag when he sees me. I like to sit down on the floor and hug him and press my face into his fur while he wiggles and licks my face and then he’ll prance away and jump around and comes back to do it again. It’s nice.
The other day my dad and I went to the mall so I could pick up the DMV manual (At age 22 I’m going to learn to drive…..). And we took Nels! And this is what it looked like.
February 1, 2011 at 1:29 pm |
sweet