Bowling, The Christmas Tree Shop, and Tango...Cool! Unstoppable Woman? - Day 9
These three things really have nothing in common, except that it was their intersection in my life today that gave me one of those moments when life is exceptional. And people are exceptional. And dogs, too.
I love dogs. We have three currently; we once had five but I was way over my stress-limit with constantly tripping over five dog bodies. Anyway, I just had dropped my daughter off at the bowling alley in Augusta, Maine; she and her soccer team were celebrating their win last night by bowling. I had 2 hours to kill. My husband had me run an errand to Lowes which took all of 15 minutes, so I wandered aimlessly through Sears and Fashion Bug (boring...another 20 minutes gone...geez, still over an hour left...) and finally walked into The Christmas Tree Shop where I continued my meandering. Until a dog caught my eye.
A dog in a store! Now that's interesting! Especially to a dog lover!
The man with the dog very nicely acknowledged my staring interest, so of course I walked up and asked him if he was training the dog. No, it turned out that the dog belonged to him; he was hearing impaired and the dog was his hearing dog. We struck up a conversation and I got to pat Tango. 
EXCEPTIONAL PERSON: Mr. William Palmer, Tango's owner, is hearing impaired AND he is also a high school teacher in Rockland, Maine. Having his hearing dog has allowed him to continue teaching. How cool is that??? Mr. Palmer can hear if faced and spoken to directly, but he can't hear any other sounds around him. Tango "hears" for him and alerts him to the sounds. Tango was trained by the National Education for Assistance Dog Services (NEADS) located in Princeton, MA. Mr. Palmer gave me his business card with NEADS's web site so as soon as I got home I researched them.
EXCEPTIONAL PEOPLE: NEADS is a non-profit organization established in 1976 that trains dogs to assist people that are hearing and physically disabled so these people can lead independent and productive lives. Although NEADS is located in Massachusetts, they provide dogs to disabled people all over the country. NEADS is the oldest hearing dog assistance program in the United States and the only one in New England. Their web site is full of information about their programs and the types of assistance their dogs provide. While reading through all the information, there were two things that really struck me about this organization. First, in addition to receiving donated puppies from breeders, they rescue dogs from shelters and train them to be assistance dogs. (Cool!) Second, they use inmates to help train the dogs. (That's cool, too!)
NEADS developed the Canines for Combat Veterans program, where service dogs are matched with disabled veterans. NEADS trains hearing dogs, service dogs, social dogs, speciality dogs, balance dogs and also provides public dog training. All in all, an exceptional organization.
If you want to know more about NEADS or you know someone who might benefit from their assistance dogs, be sure to check out their web site at www.neads.org.
EXCEPTIONAL DOG. WAY COOL.
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