GUIDE DOGS, OWNERS TRUE PARTNERS.Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY Dennis McCarthy may refer to:
Frank Ibarra and his 3-year-old guide dog, Jake, were running late. ``I heard the signal that the train door was about to close and I just couldn't afford to miss it, so I told Jake to run,'' Frank said. ``He did a great job of getting us through the crowd quickly without knocking anyone over, and we just slipped through the doors before they shut. ``I was so amazed a·maze v. a·mazed, a·maz·ing, a·maz·es v.tr. 1. To affect with great wonder; astonish. See Synonyms at surprise. 2. Obsolete To bewilder; perplex. v.intr. , I knelt knelt v. A past tense and a past participle of kneel. knelt Verb the past of kneel knelt kneel on the floor and hugged Jake. He caught me by surprise and gave me a very sloppy kiss right on the mouth!'' It's stories like Frank's -- poignant vignettes of life for guide dog users on the streets of their cities -- that help answer a lot of the questions we ask ourselves whenever we see them walking down a sidewalk together. Including, just how close is that relationship? Turns out, as close as Rogers and Astaire. ``They're a team, a beautiful dance,'' says Lorri Bernson, a spokeswoman for Guide Dogs of America in Sylmar, which places 60 guide dogs a year with people who have lost their sight. ``The person can't get along independently without the dog, and the dog without the person. They need each other.'' She should know. Lorri and her guide dog, Nigel, have been dancing together for five years. Here are a few more stories that guide dog users in California recently sent her about some of their most memorable moments. ``Several years ago, my guide dog Nia and I went to New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. to meet up with our longtime friends, Susie and her guide dog, Tiki Tiki Tick of Dow Jones Industrial Average component issues. ,'' wrote Nikki Jeffords. ``None of us had ever been to New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of before. We had a blast. We learned the subway system and walked all over the city feeling safe and confident. ``It was a fantastic trip that Susie and I know would never have happened without Nia and Tiki,'' she said. Mark Grimes' guide dog, Aslan, has a thing for the ladies For the Ladies is a extended play by Machine Gun Fellatio. The extended play was released in 2002. Track listing
``He loves them, which is not a bad thing, but sometimes it gets me in trouble,'' he says. ``If we sit anywhere, Aslan will find a lady and start his, `Hey, don't you think I'm cute?' act. ``Next thing I know, I'm either engaged in friendly conversation, or being chewed out for using my dog as bait to meet them. ``My wife thinks it's all very funny. To me, it's a small price to pay for such a great guide dog.'' The dance isn't always about catching trains, guided tours guided tour guide n → visite guidée; what time does the guided tour start? → la visite guidée commence à quelle heure? , sloppy kisses and meeting the opposite sex, though. It's also about protecting lives. ``One day walking home from work, my guide dog, Houston, and I were passing a construction site when he stopped at the driveway,'' Mark Hanohano said. ``After a few seconds with no sound of danger, I told him to go forward, but he wouldn't move. I was about to insist when suddenly a car came zooming out of the driveway in reverse. ``Without Houston, I would have walked right into that car. It's just one of the many times he's kept me out of harm's way beyond the danger limit; in a safe place. - Latimer. See also: Out .'' Every morning at her apartment, Debbie Paul and her guide dog, Fremont, go down a wheelchair ramp A wheelchair ramp is an inclined plane installed in addition to or instead of stairs. Ramps permit wheelchair users, as well as people pushing strollers, carts, or other wheeled objects, to more easily access a building. on the side of her building and cross an alley. ``But one day Fremont blocked me and wouldn't let me pass,'' she said. ``It turns out someone had parked a forklift with the tines at shin height at the bottom of the ramp. ``I would have walked right into the lift, and hurt myself. Now Fremont is very cautious every time we approach that alley.'' And then there's the day Midnight saved Gerry Leary's life. ``I was walking to work past a site where they were lifting a stack of drywall by crane up to the second story of a building undergoing remodeling remodeling /re·mod·el·ing/ (re-mod´el-ing) reorganization or renovation of an old structure. bone remodeling ,'' Leary said. ``Two passersby tried to tell me it was OK to keep walking, but Midnight kept pulling me back. I thought he was wrong, but he pulled me hard away from the crane. ``At that moment, the drywall slipped out of its tether tether to tie an animal up by the head or neck so that it can graze but not move away. See also barton tether. and fell, injuring the two people who told me it was safe. ``For the next two hours, all I could do was thank God for Midnight,'' Leary said. So, yeah, it's a dance, a guard service and a love affair -- that relationship between guide dogs and their users walking down the street together. They need each other. For more information on Guide Dogs of America, call 362-5834, or visit www.guidedogsofamerica.org. dennis.mccarthy(at)dailynews.com (818) 713-3749 CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Frank Ibarra and his 3-year-old guide dog, Jake, have a relationship as close as they come. ``They're a team, a beautiful dance,'' says Lorri Bernson, a spokeswoman for Guide Dogs of America in Sylmar. ``The person can't get along independently without the dog, and the dog without the person. They need each other.'' |
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