Return to top of this page.
These 2 brilliantly funny stories were contributed by Janet, a guide dog owner living in London, UK, thanks a million Janet for sharing them with us!
I was living in Croydon at the time this happened to me and travelling with my first guide dog, Tammy, to Oxford Street in London, where I worked. Well I got up for work and, as usual, picked up all my dirty clothes which had been thrown on the bedroom floor the night before. I then took them all to the bathroom and dumped them in the laundry basket ready for washing that evening.
Tammy came wandering into the bedroom just to make sure I was up. Once I had fed Tammy and let her out into the garden I got myself ready for work. Soon me and Tammy were walking to the station to catch the train. Our train journey was uneventful, but then we had to catch two Underground trains to get to work. Tammy weaved in and out of the crowds of people on the platform, and once the train arrive she pushed her way through the people trying to get on and got me the only seat available. She did the same thing on the second underground train. Eventually we came up for fresh air [well if you can call London air fresh!] and set off for the office. On the way, we stopped off at a little health food shop we frequented and I bought a wholemeal cherry scone with butter. We finally got to work and I dumped my bag on my desk along with my scone. Tammy sat down in front of me, hoping to get a piece of scone [not a fat chance], and I could make out that she had something in her mouth. I put out my hand to grab hold of it, it was soft and felt like it was made of cotton. I pulled and Tammy opened her jawed ... and out fell a pair of my dirty knickers which I must have missed when picking up the clothes off the floor. I was so embarrassed as I wasn't the only person in the office.
I quickly grabbed them and stuffed them in my pocket, hoping no one had seen what they were. That'll teach me to leave my clothes lying around on the floor!
PASS THE BREAD PLEASE!
This incident happened to me when I was living in Garrow House, in West London. I had recently qualified with my first guide dog, Tammy, and we were doing a bit of exploring and shopping. I was running out of tins of Chappie for her [we fed them tinned dog food in those days, 1988 to be precise] and someone had told me that one of the local supermarkets did Chappie in different flavours. So we went into this shop and I asked someone to show me where the dog food was.
Once I had selected several cans in various flavours I went to the counter to pay for them. Tammy was most interested in all the food on display and several times I had to tell her off for trying to stick her nose into things which didn't concern her. Well we paid for the dog food and I packed it all into a shoulder bag. Then we set off for home. Tammy was working really well, and trotted along with her tail wagging almost vertically. She found the crossing we needed and sat down even before I had told her to. Then she looked up at me with a big cheesy grin on her face and ... A HUGE CRUSTY BREAD ROLL WEDGED IN HER MOUTH!!
Well I was so cross with her for stealing it, it must have come from the shop we had just been in, I did remember that they had a basket with bread rolls in it on the floor by the counter [silly place to leave a basket on uncovered food really]. No wonder she was so pleased with herself. Anyway I grabbed the bread roll out of her mouth and threw it away in disgust. A couple of seconds after it had left my hand I heard a thump as it hit the window of a passing car. Luckily it didn't stop or I don't know what I would have done.
Needless to say, I didn't go back into that shop again!