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From: Henry.Kasten@f10.n130.z1.fidonet.org (Henry Kasten)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: Guide Dogs
Message-ID: <14139@bunker.UUCP>
Date: 14 Sep 90 14:04:46 GMT
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Reply-To: Henry.Kasten@f10.n130.z1.fidonet.org
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Index Number: 10371

[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

Howdy Willie,
Caught your messages concerning Seeing Eye prioritizing it's clients. 
Can't say that they do,  can't say that they don't.  Three years ago when 
i went to Morris town to get my dog guide, Falcon a.k.a. Buzzard, my 
April class consisted of an equal mix of new to the Seeing Eye and old 
clients.  about an equal amount of men to women,  3 diabetics out of 19 
clients, but, an inordinate amount of unemployed people (less then25% as 
best as I could tell).  i think only one was going to return to school in 
the fall.  so, i don't know if what you do is really on of the criteria. 
I do know that every one of those dogs had almost a spittin image of a 
personality as there master.  Daisy belonged to a youg lady from NJ She 
was always bustling about talking and zipping around. daisy was the same 
way always starting things with other dogs always moving about a real 
speed demon.  Bert on the other hand belonged to an old fart bert was 
always grumpy sounding girr, girr.  of course Falcon is very handsome 
well mannored laid back lazy, just like me.  in other words i think the 
Seeing Eye puts more emphasis on matching its dogs than they do 
considering what you do with the dog when you get home.  Also, for what 
it's worth, I know a Dog Guide user who less than a month after applying 
for his dog, was in Michigan getting a dog.  I'm not sure Leader Dogs 
could have done much of a personality check on this guy who in my opinion 
did not need to have a dog (due to his personality not his visual acuity) 
 I'm not bad mouthing Leader heck i'm a Lion from way back.  Just don't 
think they need to be in such a gall durn hurry to gine some one a dog. 
And while i'm on a roll, my next door neighbor just bought a 6 week old 
Golden Retriever for $300.00 and thought they got a bargain,  What did we 
pay for fully trained dogs?  Heck my plane fair to NJ was over $700.00, 
and I've eaten alot worse food and paid more than a few dollars for it. 
I Think i got a darn good deal for $150.00, and I can say I own the 
beast.
well enough about this for me, (for now any way)  you and i at least know 
who has the best dogs for willie and henry.
henry
out of sight out of mind

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