Dogs: 37 Stories of Canine Compassion and Courage by Jennifer S. Holland

Author:Jennifer S. Holland
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Workman Publishing Company
Published: 2016-06-22T20:21:19+00:00

Edward (left) and new guide dog Opal.

“He’s a show-off. He has a funny pose—lying down on one shoulder with his bottom sticking up,” she explains. “We call it the shoulder stand. He stays like that until the audience responds with an awwwwww, which they always do.”

From there, Edward rolls onto his back and waves his legs in the air. “It makes everyone laugh, and it looks like he’s smiling, too,” says Sandra. It’s one of the little behaviors that makes Edward Edward.

Stardom hasn’t ruined the blind dog, and to Graham, he has simply been the constant companion who made it possible for the sixty-six-year-old to get on with life despite faulty eyes. “It’s really amazing how well guide dogs help us to cope,” he says. “Before Edward, I’d walk into posts and trip a lot. But he brought me more than just help with that sort of thing. Our partnership really made my life much better.” That love between animal and master is especially powerful, he says, when it’s more man relying on dog than the other way around.

But Edward isn’t the only star in this story. When the older Lab’s eyes failed him, Graham knew he’d have to let a new dog into his life. Enter Opal, a younger, yellower version of her predecessor. “It was hard at first,” Graham says. “The trainer asked, ‘Are you ready for a new dog?’ But how can you be ready for that? It was very difficult for me to go out with Opal and leave Edward behind. He would come to the door and want to come with us. Edward was the one I wanted by my side.”

But Opal, a quick study when it came to guide-dog skills (perhaps learning a few of them from wise Edward’s behavior), proved her love and worth, and solidified her place in the family. From the day she arrived, Sandra says, Opal has been attached to Graham. “Even after five years, she still follows him from room to room, and watches through the glass door to the garden to get a glimpse of him if they are apart. She was totally his from the start—would pull your arm off to get to him.”

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