When we applied to raise a Seeing Eye puppy, we were told not to expect one for several months. Then a lady who was raising one injured her knee and needed an operation. That meant that she couldn't keep her 9-month-old Lab/Golden mix. We offered to take over and got Venita on April 15, 2008 at nine months of age. She had already learned most of the Seeing Eye rules. On September 8th, Venita went to the Seeing Eye headquarters in Morristown, NJ for four months of intensive training. She became a guide and companion for a lady in North Carolina.

In January, 2009, we got a second puppy from The Seeing Eye. She was a black Lab/Golden mix, but TSE named her Pumpkin! Her brother was golden, but they named him Pilgrim. We fell in love with Pumpkin and so did nearly everyone else. She delighted in giving unsuspecting persons, especially children, a quick kiss on the cheek, so we sometimes called her "Lickerish."

Pumpkin returned to The Seeing Eye in Morristown, NJ for her formal training on June 1, 2011.

We were privileged to watch her "graduation," called "Town Walk," on November 7.

We now have our third dog. The given name is "TR" but we inserted the German word for dogs, (hunde) and came up with "Thunder." That is appropriate for a German Shepherd, wouldn't you think?

I made a website for our Seeing Eye puppy raiser club with many photos of our activities.  You can watch a video of "Venita's Town Walk" in Morristown on YouTube. You can download a 16 MB PowerPoint of Venita here (you don't need the program to play it). 

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