Wilda

At long last, after some worrying months for we who lack confidence in our puppies, Wilda has been placed with a graduate. It’s not that Wilda was a bad puppy, but she did have at least one unusual habit that made me wonder if she was really a candidate for guide dog work.

Wilda talks. She doesn’t talk to everyone, but she talked to me, and I learned that she did talk to her trainer. Initially I thought it was kind of funny that when I was on the phone, Wilda would try to make words. But it progressed to me being unable to tell her anything, since she was so busy talking back and it was hard talking over her when I was having a conversation. The movements she made with her mouth were funny and exaggerated, and I wondered if I somehow looked like that to her when I was speaking.

She never made the noises when anyone else was in the room, but her voice sure carried. My husband could hear it upstairs, but if he tried to catch her doing it, to see what it looked like (as opposed to my imitation of what it looked like) she always clammed right up. Mum was the word, and she never admitted to him that she could talk.

Now that she is with her graduate, her person who will rely on her to guide her safely, I don’t know if she will talk. As far as I know she only talks to women, which makes it possible that she might have a few things to say. I’ll never know. But Wilda is a working girl, and of that I can be extremely proud.

Wilda Walks with Wisdom

It’s amazing. The trainers at the Seeing Eye have turned another bouncy, flouncy puppy, one which we spent months working to civilize and socialize, into a model dog guide. Wilda is now prepared to steer visually impaired people around life’s obstacles.

We were so excited to see her walk with her trainer around the streets of Morristown, NJ, on a frigid, sunny day in early January. Walking quickly so we wouldn’t fall behind her and her trainer, we kept the obligatory following distance and watched every move they made. Wilda confidently navigated around trees and signs in the sidewalk and negotiated her way past a construction site. She even thwarted her trainer’s attempt to walk into the path of a moving car.

Her trainer thinks she’s great and is hopeful that she will be matched with someone in the next few months. We are so proud that she learned her lessons well.

Off to Puppy School

Wilda, our 16-month-old black Labrador retriever Seeing Eye® puppy, returned to The Seeing Eye Tuesday. Sending a puppy back is a strange feeling and differs with each of them. Some departures bring tears and some bring smiles, as the pups climb into the back of the Seeing Eye van. Our last one, Audrey, was hard to let go, but I was, if not happy, relieved when Wilda left. She is a wonderful puppy, came house-trained at seven weeks (!), and followed commands. And she is full of personality.

Here are some of her traits.

Wilda is smart. To show me she wanted to go for a walk, she pulled a leash off the hook, put it in the middle of the kitchen floor, then pulled out a plastic bag and put it next to the leash.

Wilda is sneaky. She is a pickpocket, both from jackets hanging on the hook near the door, as well as from briefcases or purses left unzipped. Any paper and pen I am using is instantly on the floor if I leave the room, and that includes, unfortunately, twenty dollar bills.

Wilda is a pack animal. Whenever it is time to go out, she rounds up the other dogs and pushes them to the door. She also appointed herself the pee police and took over Misty’s job of alerting us to canine potty needs.

Wilda is a cat lover, at least if the cat is Smudge. She likes to remove his collar as often as she gets a chance. Then she carries it back to her lair, which, conveniently, is the middle of the kitchen floor.

Wilda is possessive. If I stand still for even a second next to one of the counters in the kitchen, she will lay down across my feet. It makes cooking difficult. Luckily, I have long arms. She also sometimes drapes an arm over the other dogs.

Wilda is talkative. This is her worst trait, but she only does it to me. She seems to be mimicking my mouth movements and talks to me, sometimes also barks at me, while I am trying to work. For everyone else, mum is the word.

It has been quiet since she left. Very quiet.

The more they are the same, the more they are different.

We have been fostering Seeing Eye® puppies for almost 15 years. Almost all have been Labrador retrievers, with the exception of two, who were Lab/Golden crosses. The eleven dogs (which may sound like a lot of work, but it’s easier than, say, having octuplets) were all as different as they were similar.

Two were diametrically opposite. Pauline, dog number five, was a yellow Labrador retriever whom we nicknamed Paulinidini, since she was so much like Houdini. She could get out of anything, a triple-locked crate, a house . . . . Just ask the local police about her. One summer night she walked out the back door while my husband and I were walking our two other dogs. Someone who shall remain nameless did not notice her absence. Apparently she was following us when a kind soul picked her up and brought her to the police station. They looked at her tags and called Seeing Eye, who called and asked if we knew where our puppy was. We looked under the desk where we thought she was sleeping. No puppy. It was mighty embarrassing to have to bail Pauline out after her vanishing act.

On the other hand, Wilda Scisssorlips, our current, black Labrador retriever puppy, has managed to lock herself into rooms, notably the powder room in our house. Because she sometimes wears her leash around the house, and it is knotted in several places, if Wilda walks into the bathroom, which has a door that opens out, the knot will catch under the door and as she goes in will pull the door shut behind her. Then she has to wait until someone sees the leash sticking out from under the door. The few moments of panic at finding her missing (talk about a locked-door mystery) have not involved the police, so far.

They do have a few things is common. They are the kind of puppies who keep people busy, just trying to keep them out of trouble, and they are the most comical, which somehow makes up for a lot of their antics.

Wild and Wonderful Wilda

So much has happened since I last blogged. First, there was the Seeing Eye Puppy Halloween party, which Wilda attended dressed as a princess. Then there were all those holidays. During that time Wilda acquired several new personality traits. She perfected her sharklike behavior, cruising under the table and surfacing only to snatch something and drag it under. She has unstuffed all the toys in the house and is currently working on the dog bed which somehow got too close to her crate. She has shredded it as well as the towel inside the crate, ripping it as neatly as if she had started the tear with scissors. For that reason I have taken to calling her Wilda Scissorlips. She would be great in a disaster, as she could make bandage strips out of any fabric. She also regards herself as some sort of rock star, refusing to go anywhere without her entourage. If she needs to go out, she’ll round up the other dogs to accompany her. She is also perfecting her skills as a pickpocket. Most recently she developed her latest trick--walking upstairs backwards. In short, she keeps me very busy. And on top of that, I'm getting ready for the launch of my new book, Vengeance Runs Cold, which is coming out February 24th.