Lindy Hou OAM

News from Harper the Guide Dog - April 2010

April is when we have the International Guide Dogs Week (26 April to 2 May). This is when the whole world takes notice of the wonderful work we, the Guide Dogs, do to help our Vision Impaired Human to get around.

 

April is also when daylight savings finishes and we get an extra hour of daylight in the morning. Lindy can now see the footpath to run with the FIT group. I on the other paw, just keep on sleeping on.

 

In this issue:

-         MS Mega Swim on the 1^st and 2^nd May

-         International Guide Dogs Week (26 April to 2 May)

-         Violin Lessons

-         Blind Courage Cycle from Perth to Sydney

-         Dawn Service on ANZAC Day

 MS Mega Swim on the 1^st and 2^nd May

Lindy’s training is going really well. She managed to swim a whole 2 kilometers without hitting the lane rope. If you are in Canberra, come and cheer her on at the AIS Swimming Pool at 12 noon on Saturday. She is on target to swim for at least 2 kilometers in that hour.

Thank you to many of you who have donated to Lindy and her FIT team for their MS Mega Swim. They are leading the charge in the donation department for raising funds for people affected by Multiple Sclerosis. If you wish to donate and have not done so, you still have time. Just follow the link http://events.megaswim.com/?lindyhou

 

Apart from supporting a good cause, you can also take the opportunity to get a tax deduction for 2009/2010 tax year.

 International Guide Dogs Week (26 April to 2 May)

This is one week of the year that we, the Guide Dogs, get to be recognized for the work that we do for our Human Handlers. My 4-legged work mates and I are sending out the message to the public about “Please do not disturb” us while we are working.

 

How come you humans don’t walk up to a police officer and pat he or she on the head while they are in uniform. And yet you come up to us, the guide dogs, and pat us on the head while we are in our uniform! Sometimes we wonder what you humans are thinking.

 

We also try to educate the public about keeping their pet dogs on the lead and not to let them walk right up to us while we are working.

 

Jay, a Canberra lady, had to retire her guide dog a few days ago as her dog is now too traumatised to work, after being attacked by an off-lead dog. Apart from costing $30,000 to train a guide dog, there is also the time and emotional cost for the handler and trainer. Luckily for me, my nearest nasty experience was when I was confronted by a large off-lead German Shepherd. He left me alone after circling Lindy & I a few times. I still remember how shaking Lindy was that day. I pretended to be brave!

 Violin Lessons

I have been busy checking out the Guide Dogs Reference Manual and can’t find anything about supervising music lessons. Well, I know when I took on this job with Lindy that she did mention about extra duties. However she didn’t say anything 6 years ago about wanting to learn violin!

 

Lindy’s family bought her a violin for her BIG birthday. It is something that she had always wanted to learn since she was a little kid. So being the wonderful Guide Dog that I am, I will just lie here and put up with the awful noise!

 

That violin thing is only just starting to make some sensible noise now, and I overheard her teacher say that Lindy will be able to start playing some tunes next week. Oh please! Please! I can only put up with the noise for so long.

 

I certainly will demand a big bonus at the end of the year to compensate for all these extra duties.

 Blind Courage Cycle from Perth to Sydney

Lorin and Dean Nicholson have embarked on an epic tandem bike ride, “Blind Challenge” to raise $300,000 for Vision Australia - $1 for every person who is blind or has low vision in Australia. They also aim to create awareness of the significant abilities of people who are blind or have low vision.

 

The Brisbane-based siblings departed from Perth on 29 March with their pilots John and Grant for their 4000km journey across Australia. They reached the Sydney Opera House on Monday 26^th April.

 

On Friday, 23^rd April, they rode from Gundagai to Canberra. Lindy rode out to Yass to meet the boys with her pilot Elton and rode in with them. Lindy’s was just a 110km round trip which is very short compared to the 4,000km they are riding!

 

The group then met another 8 tandem and single bikes just on the outskirts of Canberra City . The pelaton then rode the last 7km to Garema Place with police escort. This is possibly the largest gathering of tandem bikes in Canberra.

 

The diary of their journey can be viewed on http://www.blindcourage.com/

 

Please support the riders and the work of Vision Australia by donating through :http://www.blindcourage.com/?page_id=91

 Dawn Service on ANZAC Day

For those overseas readers, ANZAC Day – 25 April – is probably Australia’s most important national occasion. It marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War.

 

Lindy & I attended the Dawn Service at the Australian War Memorial on Anzac morning. We got up at 3:30 am and caught the shuttle bus to the War Memorial. This is the earliest I have ever got up but I definitely wasn’t going to let Skinny Harper (the Long White Cane) take my place. We were with Lindy’s nephew-in-law, Stephen, and his daughters Georgia and Lilly who are 7 and 5 years old. John, Stephen’s friend, helped me guide Lindy through the crowd.

 

It was a beautiful morning with a sky full of stars. We were among the 20,000 people who attended the service. The service only took 30 minutes but it was one of the most moving 30 minutes that Lindy & I had experienced.

 

I was amazed to see how many young people were there to commemorate the men and women who gave their lives for Australia. When we had the minute silence, you could have heard a pin drop among the 20,000 people.

 

The lady who sat next to us on the shuttle bus, told us that her father was in the Light Horse Brigade during the 1^st World War. When they came back to Australia, they were not allowed to bring their horses back. They had to shoot all their horses before they left. It certainly brought tears to our eyes. Lindy gets sad when I am not well, let alone…..

 

ANZAC Day certainly is not a day to glorify wars, but rather a day to reflect and commemorate. If only the human race could be nice to each other!!

 

On this note don’t forget:

 

“Be nice to each other and treat others like the way we want to be treated”

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Woof Woof

 Harper Hou

+61 (0) 2 6156 2964

+61 (0) 402 113 836

harperhou@optusnet.com.au

www.lindyhou.com