0:10

On Vision Australia radio. You're listening

0:13

to the Semitic Show with me, your host,

0:15

Harriet Moffatt. In recognition of

0:17

Mother's Day, I'm going to be joined by

0:20

two handler guests. The first

0:22

is Nicole Forbes Hood, a mum

0:24

from Queensland. We're going to be talking about her

0:27

life and story with her seeing eye

0:29

dog, Oscar. And then I'm going to

0:31

be joined by Annie Abbott, a single

0:33

handler from Western Australia, talking

0:35

about her life with seeing eye

0:37

dog Lola, as well as about

0:39

being a grandma as well. So

0:42

without further ado, I'm going

0:44

to kick off with my interview with Nicole.

0:52

Hi, Nicole. Thank you for joining me on the show today.

0:55

You're welcome. Yeah, thanks for having me.

0:57

So just I guess in, um,

1:00

I'm going to start that again. Not. Not actually

1:02

again. So could you please start

1:05

by introducing yourself? Um, tell us a

1:07

bit about you, your family and, you know, hobbies,

1:09

interests, anything.

1:11

Yeah, sure. Um, so.

1:14

Yeah. My name is Nicole. Um, I

1:16

live on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland

1:18

with my family. So my

1:21

husband and my

1:23

two children who, um, who

1:25

are a bit older now. So I've got my son, who's

1:27

just turned 21, and my daughter, who's

1:30

just recently turned 18 as well.

1:32

Um, yeah, we're we're currently building

1:35

a house and, uh,

1:37

yeah, we're just lead pretty busy lives and,

1:40

um, and. Yeah. Yeah.

1:43

Could you please introduce your Seeing Eye dog?

1:47

Sure. So my seeing eye dog

1:49

is Oscar. Um, he's

1:52

about to turn six years old.

1:54

Um, he was matched with me

1:56

in 2020. I had been on

1:58

the waiting list, um, for a seeing eye

2:00

dog for, um, for

2:03

for a little while. Not. Not a hugely

2:05

long time, but I just honestly

2:08

did not think that I would be likely to

2:10

get matched during that Covid time. But

2:12

lo and behold, I did. And he's the most

2:14

beautiful dog. He's, um, he's

2:17

a very gentle boy. He's quite sensitive.

2:19

Um, and yeah, he's he's just fun

2:22

loving. He's a really, really nice boy. And

2:24

he's, um, just been such

2:26

a value add to my life.

2:28

So what are the kind of things that you like best

2:31

about him? Either Oscar himself or

2:33

having a seeing eye dog?

2:35

Look, certainly the independence that he's

2:37

given me. Uh, it's.

2:40

Yeah, but I've lost,

2:43

um, most of my vision now. Um,

2:45

I was born with very little vision,

2:47

but it's deteriorated significantly,

2:50

I guess, over the past five years.

2:52

So Oscar has really allowed me to,

2:54

I guess, get out there and, um,

2:57

and have that independence of being able

2:59

to to go shopping

3:02

or just to do basic stuff

3:04

that, you know, people with full vision

3:06

generally would take for granted, like

3:08

catching public transport and so forth.

3:11

Is he your first seeing eye dog?

3:14

He sure is. Yeah. He

3:16

is. Yeah. Not. Yeah. We've had, um,

3:19

a family pet dog, um,

3:21

prior. So. Yeah. But apart

3:24

from that, he's. Yeah, certainly my first senior

3:26

dog.

3:27

Um, kind of thinking back to it, do you remember,

3:30

was there any particular catalyst that made you

3:32

decide to apply?

3:34

Yes, I, yes, I,

3:36

um, I had some pretty significant

3:38

changes in my vision around 2018

3:42

where, um, an operation had gone

3:44

quite pear shaped and, um, yeah,

3:46

a significant amount of my vision had been lost,

3:48

and I just felt that I'd

3:50

lost a lot of my independence. Um,

3:53

during that time, I also felt like I had lost

3:55

a little bit of my identity. I had to

3:57

stop work, um, in

3:59

the field that I was working in and

4:02

just felt like I needed to

4:04

do something to, um,

4:06

to get things back on track and and

4:08

have that independence back. So,

4:11

um, I did learn some cane skills,

4:13

but, um, yeah,

4:16

for me, I felt like the road would always be,

4:18

um, looking towards a seeing eye dog,

4:21

where I guess I would be

4:23

able to have more fluid independence of

4:25

just being able to get out and go,

4:28

um, and walk confidently, which I

4:30

felt like. The

4:32

cane didn't give me 100% off.

4:36

So what is a typical day in a

4:38

life of you and Oscar?

4:42

Um, well, look, I, I do work,

4:44

um, full time again now, um, from

4:46

home. So, um, the

4:49

types of things that Oscar and I will

4:51

generally do is, um,

4:54

not not, you know, heading into an office

4:56

as such, but more so things like going

4:58

down to the gym or going shopping,

5:01

um, assisting my kids to get

5:03

to certain activities.

5:05

So, yeah, we do try and be fairly

5:07

active and, and get out and about and, um.

5:11

Yeah, a fair bit. I love walking,

5:13

so. Yeah. Oscar's, um,

5:15

been great for that. For fitness as well. Being

5:18

able to. Yeah. To just get out and

5:20

enjoy life. Really.

5:22

I guess when you're kind of trying to do, you know,

5:24

uh, walks for exercise and you want to get a

5:26

bit of speed up. Um, having a dog by your

5:28

side is kind of quite helpful in that in that sense.

5:31

Most definitely, most definitely.

5:33

And, um. Yeah, Oscar's

5:36

been, um, been great. Like, he's he's

5:38

a very, um, peoplely dog. He loves

5:40

people, but his actual, um,

5:43

dog distraction is, is very good.

5:45

So we feel that even though we live in an area

5:47

where there are a lot of people are out walking their dogs,

5:49

um, I can confidently just, um,

5:51

yeah, get out for a bit of exercise with Oscar

5:54

and and feel like I'm quite safe with him guiding

5:56

me. Um, and

5:58

yeah, he's, he's generally very focused

6:01

on on what he's doing, and, um.

6:04

Yeah, he's he's great.

6:06

So I guess maybe this has changed

6:09

a little bit. Um, now your kids are getting a

6:11

little bit older, and maybe then they themselves

6:13

are getting a little bit, um, more

6:15

independent. Um, but as a mum,

6:18

how does having, um,

6:20

you know, a seeing eye dog or having, um, vision

6:22

loss kind of impact your day to day?

6:25

But both of my kids have vision impairments

6:27

as well. Um, my my

6:29

son, um, also has

6:32

an intellectual disability. So

6:34

even though they are older,

6:36

they're still, I

6:38

guess, a lot of stuff that that

6:40

I make sure that I do assist them

6:42

with as well. So, uh,

6:45

for instance, my daughter works at the

6:47

local supermarket, which is within

6:49

walking distance, but I would never

6:51

just let her walk home at, you know, in the dark

6:54

by herself. So Oscar and I

6:56

often trek down to the supermarket

6:58

to collect them from work. Um, and

7:00

there's absolutely no way I would feel confident

7:02

doing that, you know, by myself.

7:05

Um, but with Oscar, it's.

7:07

Yeah, I have the confidence and

7:09

the independence to be able to do that.

7:12

Um, yeah, I

7:15

so I think yeah.

7:18

And then just generally things

7:20

that we would do as a family, like,

7:23

you know, being able to go out for lunch together

7:25

or, or go and do some basic

7:28

shopping, um, maneuvering around

7:30

a busy shopping center. Oscar

7:32

is very confident with that. So it's

7:34

been fantastic.

7:35

So what did the, um, what do the kids

7:38

think of him?

7:39

They were fairly excited.

7:41

Um, yeah. So he

7:43

he just fitted in so. Well,

7:46

he he just. Yeah.

7:48

I mean, we as I said, we did have,

7:50

um, a family pet dog, um, another

7:52

golden retriever, actually, um,

7:55

and two cats. So our cats weren't so

7:57

impressed. And, um, our other

7:59

Goldie made sure that she, um,

8:02

let Oscar know that her place

8:04

in the in the home was top dog.

8:06

But, yeah, the kids, the kids loved,

8:09

uh, love Oscar. He's he's just so gentle.

8:11

He's just such a loving boy. And, um.

8:14

And I had wondered

8:16

at first and remember saying to,

8:19

um, our trainer. Oh, is he is he going to actually

8:21

bond with me, or do you think he may just

8:23

instinctively go towards the, um,

8:26

the kids or my husband? But

8:28

but no, he's he's definitely made that

8:30

bond with me. Um, although

8:32

he gets very excited to see everybody

8:34

else in the, in the house as well when they come

8:36

home. Um, he

8:39

definitely has made that bond with me, so

8:41

it's good.

8:41

I'm sure there's a bit of, um. Yeah. You

8:44

want everyone to get along. You still need to be,

8:46

uh, still need to be the favorite, but, um. Yeah,

8:48

it probably wouldn't have it any other way. You wouldn't want them

8:50

not liking the kids either. Exactly.

8:52

Most definitely. Most definitely.

8:56

Yeah. No, he's, um, been a great.

8:59

Um. Yeah. Just a great value

9:01

add to the family. Really?

9:03

Do you have anything kind of funny or interesting that

9:05

you would like to share about? Um, yeah.

9:08

About your life or life of a mom with a seeing eye dog?

9:11

Oh, funny. Um.

9:14

Could be funny. Ha ha. Or funny? Interesting.

9:16

You know, I think I'm open to

9:18

anything that, um, I guess, you know, if there's anything

9:20

that you said to someone, they've gone. Oh.

9:22

Yeah. Okay, well, um, this was a little

9:24

bit of an embarrassing story. Um,

9:26

so. Yeah, we're building

9:28

the house, as I mentioned just recently, um, just

9:31

earlier in the, in the segment. And,

9:33

um, while we're building, we, we sold

9:35

our house and we've moved to a rental

9:38

property during that time, and,

9:41

um, all the house was kind of look the same.

9:43

And, and I very early on when we moved into

9:45

our rental, I was out for a walk with Oscar.

9:47

Um, and

9:50

he's. Yeah, he's generally very good

9:52

with being able to, you know, find home. But

9:54

on this particular occasion,

9:57

um, we ended up at the neighbor's

9:59

house, which doesn't it doesn't

10:01

all fairness. Look, um, fairly

10:03

similar. But we walked up, I checked

10:06

their mailbox, and I got to the front

10:08

door, and then I realized, oh, I don't

10:10

think this is my house. And Oscar's

10:12

standing there wagging his tail. Neighbor

10:14

across the road saw it all and I was so

10:17

embarrassed, like, oh my gosh, I've got my

10:19

dog with me too. And he's even

10:21

made the same mistake. Um,

10:23

but yeah, look, that's that's not.

10:26

Yeah. That's not something that happens on a regular

10:28

basis is normally, as I said, I'm

10:30

pretty good with stuff like that.

10:32

But yeah.

10:33

Did you say that was kind of your, your new

10:35

the rental.

10:36

Yes. That's right. Yeah.

10:38

You know fair's fair kind of a, you know, he's

10:40

like I found the same place. It looks the same. But,

10:42

uh. Exactly. Everyone's adjusting.

10:46

That's right.

10:48

I mean, in some ways it's probably helpful having

10:51

the Senado because it's kind of a good excuse.

10:54

You know, that's what I thought. So. Yeah.

10:57

I just.

10:57

Blame Oscar.

11:00

Yeah. I mean.

11:01

Every every dog makes mistakes.

11:04

Um, I don't think anyone's going to be thinking that you,

11:06

uh, you're trying to, you know, like burgle,

11:08

because it just wouldn't be very right. It

11:10

just wouldn't be very subtle to do with it. Like

11:13

golden retriever in a harness. You know, there's

11:15

something about it that just doesn't scream. Getaway

11:17

car.

11:18

That's it.

11:20

So just to kind of finish off, do you have

11:22

any messages you'd like to share with the

11:24

listeners of the show?

11:27

Um, look, I think.

11:29

Yeah, for anybody who is contemplating,

11:31

um, a seeing eye dog,

11:34

um, I would just. Yeah.

11:36

Absolutely recommend it. Um, yeah.

11:39

Oscar's been life changing for me.

11:41

Um, he's just fitted into our family,

11:43

um, so. Well. And he just.

11:46

Yeah, I just feel that again. He

11:48

just gives me the independence that,

11:50

um, that I. But

11:53

I never actually thought that I would have.

11:55

Yeah.

11:57

Well, thank you so much for coming

11:59

on the show. And, um, and please give Oscar

12:01

a big pat from, uh, from me and the

12:03

listeners of the show.

12:05

I sure will. Thanks so much for having me.

12:12

You've been listening to the Senior Dog show

12:14

on Vision Australia Radio. That was

12:16

Nicole Forbes Hood, a senior dog handler, talking

12:18

about her life and her story with seeing Eye

12:20

dog Oscar. Now we're going to

12:23

change states. So we're going

12:25

to talk with Annie Abbot, a senior dogs

12:27

handler in Western Australia, talking

12:29

about her experiences with Lola and

12:31

as a new grandma. I hope you enjoy this

12:33

interview. Hi, Annie. Thank you for joining

12:35

me on the show today.

12:36

You're welcome. Very nice to be here.

12:39

Could you please start off by introducing

12:41

yourself? Tell us a little bit about you, your

12:43

family and you know any hobbies and interests

12:45

you'd like to share.

12:47

Yes.

12:48

Uh, my name is, um,

12:51

Annie Abbott, and

12:53

I am, uh,

12:56

a 72 year old lady.

12:59

I have been was

13:01

diagnosed with retinitis

13:04

pigmentosa when I was

13:06

30 years old. So

13:08

I've been dealing with the loss of vision

13:11

for a long time and

13:13

have been very fortunate. Even

13:15

though I've been legally blind

13:17

for 42 years, I've

13:19

had the gradual loss,

13:22

which is due to the slower recessive

13:25

gene. My

13:27

family background is

13:29

I am one of six children,

13:32

so out of the six siblings,

13:35

three of us have

13:37

RP and the other three

13:39

have perfect sight. I'm

13:41

a twin to a girl. We

13:44

were the last, um, birth

13:46

in the family. Um,

13:49

and I have a brother that

13:51

has RP and another sister. So

13:55

we've all they've

13:57

both had guide dogs, but

13:59

unfortunately their dogs have now

14:01

passed and they're not

14:03

getting, uh, another dog

14:06

due mainly to their age

14:08

and other, um, illness,

14:11

other illnesses. So

14:15

it was married for a very, very long period

14:17

of time, but went my

14:19

own way 21

14:21

years ago. And

14:23

I have two beautiful

14:25

grown up sons who I'm extremely

14:28

proud of. They've grown up to

14:30

be lovely men and

14:32

one a lovely dad, and I

14:34

now have two beautiful grandchildren.

14:37

My disappointment now

14:40

would be not being able to see

14:43

their beautiful faces.

14:45

I was actually

14:47

confronted with that only yesterday,

14:49

and I saddened me a little

14:51

that I couldn't see my beautiful little granddaughter's

14:54

face clearly. Her name is Grace

14:56

Lorna. Um. However,

14:58

I had the cuddles and I had

15:00

everything else that goes with being

15:03

a new grandparent, so

15:05

I'm very blessed to have whatever,

15:08

whatever is offered.

15:11

Because love is the most important

15:13

thing, whether you can see or not. Activity,

15:16

I think, would be

15:18

my greatest

15:20

thing. I keep extremely

15:23

busy. I'm actually a,

15:25

um, guest speaker for seeing

15:27

eye dogs, and I do

15:29

a great deal of work in

15:31

a the city of Mandurah,

15:34

which is 80km

15:36

south of Perth. I

15:38

now live there. I moved here 16

15:40

months ago, started

15:42

a terrific new life here

15:45

as what I'd call retired.

15:47

Hahaha. But um, I

15:49

play blind bowls with

15:52

a group of 15 to 18

15:54

blind bowlers every second

15:56

Friday. Great bunch

15:59

of fantastic people and

16:01

we have a lot of fun. And

16:03

I'm also a soloist singer and

16:05

I sing for

16:08

aged care facilities.

16:10

Take my dog. So

16:13

and I'm in a choir. So

16:15

those four main things keep

16:17

me extremely busy. Amongst

16:19

having family

16:22

that also live in Mandra.

16:24

I have two sisters that live

16:26

in Mandra and my partner

16:29

les, who's been in my life for

16:31

12 years. We have

16:33

our own separate homes.

16:35

He's still a working man actually and

16:37

doesn't intend on retiring

16:39

and he is just a wonderful,

16:42

very special man who's become

16:44

a very dear friend over 12 years.

16:47

So yeah, I have an extremely

16:49

busy life, one that I'm

16:51

proud to say I can still

16:54

look after myself if, um,

16:57

I do now get help in

16:59

my home, especially with cleaning

17:01

and things like that. Cooking

17:04

is no longer it's too big a chore

17:06

for me now, so I would

17:08

have just light and dark.

17:10

Now, I don't have any definition

17:13

of vision now, but that's fine.

17:15

Um, I knew that was going to happen, and I've

17:17

been very blessed that it's taken this

17:19

long for that to happen. They're

17:21

very happy that I've had it for quite

17:24

some time. Apart from that,

17:26

what else can I tell you about it?

17:30

I can also ask, um, I guess, about

17:33

your Seeing Eye dog.

17:35

Lola is her name. Her true name?

17:37

Her birth name is viola. But

17:40

I thought that was rather a mouthful.

17:42

And so I

17:44

before I flew from Perth

17:47

to Melbourne to do my training,

17:50

um, in Kensington, I

17:52

decided to change it to Lola because

17:54

it sounded similar. And

17:56

when I met her for the very first time

17:59

to assess Leah. Lola, she's a

18:01

very pretty girl, an

18:04

absolute brilliant

18:07

seeing eye dog. I've had

18:09

no problems with Lola

18:11

from day one. She's the most

18:14

delightful, delightful

18:16

girl. I love her to pieces.

18:18

She loves people and she

18:21

loves dogs and she loves children.

18:23

So wherever I happen to go with Lola,

18:26

whether it's to choir practice or

18:28

a concert that we might be doing, she

18:31

is part of the choir

18:33

or part of the bowls.

18:35

She's just a lovely,

18:38

lovely girl. She's.

18:40

We have been together as of

18:42

the 1st of June next month.

18:44

We've been together two years.

18:47

Um, and she says she

18:50

just is an exceptional girl.

18:52

But I've never, ever

18:54

heard my Lola bark.

18:57

Really never barked. And

18:59

I actually find that quite, quite

19:01

unusual. So if somebody

19:04

comes to my door that shouldn't be at

19:06

my door, she will just

19:08

come to me like

19:10

I might be in bed asleep.

19:12

She'll just come up to me and actually

19:15

wake me up. She is a

19:17

delightful girl and she's not

19:19

your typical Labrador that goes for

19:21

food. She's not food

19:23

orientated. Lola is very

19:26

good in, uh. Well, just

19:28

experienced coming back from Sydney and

19:30

Melbourne. Absolutely

19:32

fantastic on an aeroplane. Best

19:35

dog I've had. She just

19:37

reverses into her seat,

19:39

which the, um, airline

19:42

has provided for her. Like, say, the window

19:44

seat. I sit next to

19:46

that and that gives her the

19:48

room to lay down and gives her

19:50

that space in front of me. And

19:53

the airline provide that I do not have

19:55

to pay for Lola. When

19:57

she comes on board on the aircraft with me.

20:00

Uh, they are Qantas,

20:02

in my opinion, are the best airline

20:05

or for dogs for

20:07

for seeing eye dogs or assistance dogs.

20:10

Uh, very well cared for. Always

20:12

want to make sure that your dog is okay on

20:15

the flight. Very, very

20:17

attentive workers. So.

20:19

And she just curls up, goes to sleep.

20:22

Doesn't they even put a head up when the plane

20:24

takes off or

20:27

when the plane lands? She is just

20:29

so chilled, that would be a good

20:31

word for it. No noise

20:34

bothers her, uh, at all.

20:36

So she's, uh, she's very

20:39

intuitive, but she's, um, she's

20:41

just so chilled and relaxed

20:43

all the time,

20:45

and that's actually a wonderful thing

20:47

to have when you might

20:49

not be having the best day, because

20:52

they certainly know that she'll

20:54

come and put her head in your lap. And

20:57

just to tell you that she loves you and that she's

20:59

there. And I thought, that's a lovely thing

21:01

to have companionship for.

21:03

Very important thing. Uh, but

21:06

especially when you have it in such a lovely

21:08

animal, you know, as seeing eye dogs.

21:11

Yeah. Um. What else? Um, tell me about Lola.

21:14

She just loves everybody. And everyone loves Lola.

21:16

So it's a it's a good. It's. We've

21:18

been an excellent match.

21:21

We're both absolute social

21:23

butterflies. And she loves it

21:25

just as much as I do. So when she gets

21:27

her harness on in the morning and we go for our

21:30

morning walk. She's

21:32

so happy to be doing that.

21:35

She's never rejected having a

21:37

harness put on her back. I

21:39

have I don't know if you've heard of them, Harriet,

21:41

but I have an ergonomic

21:43

harness. Have you heard of that?

21:45

I have briefly heard of some

21:47

of the different types of harnesses. That's

21:50

my.

21:51

It's the best thing that I've had

21:53

as a harness. It's the best harness

21:55

I've ever had. Um,

21:57

it's actually made of leather.

22:00

But the.

22:01

Handle. That

22:03

you, um, hold on to

22:05

detaches from either side of

22:08

the body part that you put on

22:10

your dog. So if you happen

22:12

to be getting in and out of taxis, you can

22:14

just it's just two little clips

22:17

and you can take it off to give

22:19

the dog more space. Very

22:22

clever, very innovative. Um,

22:25

and that has been fantastic.

22:27

I trained with that when I was in Kensington

22:30

and, uh, and bought it

22:32

before I came home to Perth.

22:34

Brought it home with me. Yeah. So.

22:36

Yeah. Um, Mother's

22:38

Day coming up on Sunday,

22:41

isn't it? Yes. Sunday. My

22:44

eldest son did not experience

22:47

the same. Not quite the same

22:49

life as what my younger

22:51

son did, because

22:54

my children are eight years apart

22:56

in ages. I

22:58

had a car accident with my first

23:01

baby boy, Brett, and

23:03

that's when I found out I actually had

23:05

RP. I didn't know that I was even

23:07

I was legally blind and driving a car.

23:11

And I had no idea. So

23:13

I actually just thought that my shortsightedness

23:16

had deteriorated and I

23:18

went to see a specialist and

23:20

walked in there, had the tests done, and

23:22

he said, did you drive here? And I said, yeah.

23:25

He said, well, you won't be driving home. You're legally

23:27

blind. And that was a real shock.

23:30

I was a professional photographer.

23:33

I had my own business, and I

23:35

worked for other people and did a little bit

23:37

of troubleshooting work for other photographic

23:39

companies in Perth at the time.

23:42

So that was very difficult having

23:44

to just that day, I had to stop driving.

23:46

That was it.

23:47

Especially in a job that's so visual too.

23:50

I suppose, because technology

23:52

has changed so much

23:54

that. I'm old enough

23:56

to have done black and white

23:58

sepia photos, hand coloring,

24:01

what I would class as proper

24:04

photographic work that you would do

24:06

by hand. Well, now, of course it's

24:08

not like that. So as things

24:10

changed for me, possibly

24:12

that was a good thing. So

24:15

I just decided to do other things

24:17

with my life and find other things

24:19

that I thought, you know, might

24:22

be okay. So then we had a

24:24

second child, Scott,

24:26

and it's his birthday today, and

24:28

he's 35 today. And

24:31

I found that my youngest son dealt

24:33

with. The loss

24:35

of my sight as a child,

24:38

much better than my first, because

24:40

he was born knowing

24:42

that I had a cane in my hand.

24:45

I had a cane for probably 26 years

24:47

before I had seeing eye dogs.

24:50

He knew nothing else but that,

24:52

and so he accepted it when he was very

24:54

young. That was a little bit different

24:57

than my older son. He didn't

24:59

quite know how to cope

25:01

with that, but he did. And

25:03

they have been absolutely wonderful

25:06

children and grown up to be very respectable

25:09

guys with very good jobs.

25:11

I've never had a problem, so I've

25:13

been very blessed that way.

25:14

What made you decide to get a seeing eye dog?

25:17

My brother received his

25:19

dog first and he used

25:21

to play bowls, but ten

25:23

pin bowling. And

25:25

he was very, very good. In fact, he was

25:27

a champion a few times he'd

25:30

go to different parts of Australia to play.

25:32

He was very good. Ian Cox,

25:34

who used to be with Seeing Eye Dogs for many

25:36

years, he was the trainer

25:39

at that time and he came to

25:41

Perth. And he

25:43

was training somebody else and met my

25:45

brother at Bowles, said,

25:48

Robert, you need a dog. Your

25:50

eyesight is that bad. You do need a dog.

25:53

So my brother accepted his advice

25:56

and got his beautiful

25:58

seeing eye dog called Jade. She's

26:00

passed now many years and

26:02

yeah, I went to watch

26:04

my brother play bowls and

26:07

I walked into a pillar. Oh,

26:10

he said, so you're obviously Robert's

26:12

sister and you need a dog too. So

26:15

that's actually how it came about. And

26:18

then my sister got one. So

26:20

we all got our dogs in the

26:22

one year, funny enough.

26:24

So we would all go out for our family

26:27

luncheons to hotels or restaurants

26:29

and the three dogs would all come. And

26:34

restaurant people were very good.

26:36

I mean, we went to places that we knew

26:38

and they knew us in the situation,

26:40

but I don't know if

26:43

I should be saying this, Harriet, but

26:45

being in Melbourne very recently,

26:47

I was actually shocked.

26:50

Um, a few times

26:52

we were asked to leave the restaurant, not to

26:54

come in.

26:55

Oh.

26:56

That, uh, disturbed me a little bit.

26:59

I would think that in today's,

27:01

um, society and knowledge

27:04

that people have now about

27:06

seeing eye dogs and any form

27:08

of assistance dogs, people

27:10

are much more aware than what they used to be,

27:13

and so they should be. I

27:15

find, uh, ignorance

27:18

is a delicate matter

27:20

with me at times, Harry, because

27:23

they just don't want to know sometimes,

27:25

and I find that quite sad.

27:27

Yeah.

27:28

Um, but I've been asked to leave.

27:31

For United. Get off a train.

27:33

I've actually asked to be to

27:36

get off a train.

27:38

Wow. And the bus? Um,

27:41

so.

27:42

I suppose it's how you handle it.

27:44

All you can do is be courteous.

27:47

Um, not lose your cool.

27:50

But as I've got older, I'm not as.

27:54

What's the word? Perhaps

27:56

not as patient or

27:59

tolerant would be the word. I'm not as

28:01

tolerant for fools as what I

28:03

once was. I do speak up for myself,

28:05

and if people do not do the right thing,

28:08

I do report it, because

28:10

it shouldn't happen. You can't make too

28:12

big a fuss, but you just take a note of the

28:14

restaurant, have it reported and

28:16

do it the right way. There

28:18

are always a way of going about

28:21

things if you have a little bit more patience

28:23

to do so. That's sort of me in

28:25

a nutshell. I thoroughly enjoy

28:27

life and, um, yeah.

28:29

Well, thank you.

28:30

So much for joining on the show and

28:32

chatting.

28:33

You're most welcome, Harriet. And I hope,

28:35

um, I hope you viewers enjoy your program.

28:44

You've been listening to the Seeing Eye Dog

28:46

show on Vision Australia Radio. I hope

28:48

you enjoyed my interviews with Nicole and

28:51

Annie, talking about their experiences and

28:53

stories with their Seeing Eye dogs, as well as

28:55

around the topic of motherhood.

28:57

Uh, wishing all of the wonderful

28:59

mothers and female guardians and grandmothers

29:02

a very happy Mother's Day.

29:04

If you'd like to find out more about seeing eye dogs,

29:06

the work we do, how you can help, or if

29:08

you think that a seeing eye dog might be right for you.

29:10

If you're blind or have low vision, you can head

29:12

to our website at said Vision

29:15

Australia. Org for more information

29:17

or head to our social media to

29:19

read some of the stories, um, news

29:21

and information about seeing eye dogs. Thank

29:24

you for listening and don't forget to tune in. Same

29:26

time next week for another episode of The Seeing

29:28

Eye Dog Show on Vision Australia Radio.