IF WALLS COULD TALK, Week of March 30, 2017

IF WALLS COULD TALK

by Katie Ouilette

WALLS, o.k., no famous people today. You want to tell our faithful readers about animals. No, we won’t compete other columnists in this newspaper, because your trigger has been tripped about dogs, since our relative in Turner loaned us a best selling book entitled A Dog’s Purpose, by W. Bruce Cameron. Yes, I know you’ve not read much of the book at this point, but you know about pets that have surprised folks when we lived in Sudbury, Massachusetts.

O.K., WALLS start with that one-room schoolhouse at the end of Dutton Road. It really did happen, that Mary had a little lamb that followed her there. In fact, the story of that lamb is that it went to school with Mary every day, The children loved it and the lamb loved the love. That was probably in the 1800s, surely not today!

Now, WALLS, tell our faithful readers about the Denis’ Brittany Spaniel, Jock. Oh, he was a wonderful pet and the Denis children could do almost anything with him, such as his wearing a football helmet and riding up the turnpike to Maine with his head sticking out of the car window! People in the cars which we passed surely laughed at the site and Jock was happy that his head was out the window. Oh, and speaking of Jock, I went into a store in Sudbury and, because Jock always jumped into the driver’s seat when we were stopped, a woman ran into the store and announced, “that dog is driving the car!” Well, you know better, faithful readers, but that was Jock’s moment, for sure!

Yes, I do have to refer to a recent article on skunks. That reminded you of the Denis next door neighbor’s experience with one. The neighbors had a garbage can next to the house and that garbage can had a cover on it, since it was a buried can (a lot of them in Massachusetts). Well, the ‘lady of the house’ was wearing a new suit, but also fixing dinner for her family. When she went outside and lifted that cover to deposit the potato peels….you, faithful readers, guessed. She was sprayed by the skunk! Of course, she screamed and I ran to help her. O.K., dinner was late there, our next-door neighbor had to throw away her new suit and she had a bath with tomato juice and water!

Well, WALLS, there is another purpose for dogs that is not laughable, but heartwarming. When the Denis family moved to New Jersey, we lived a short distance from Morristown, where the Seeing Eye Institute was located. You faithful readers surely know that WALLS is about to tell you of ‘seeing dogs’ being trained to accompany their owners throughout downtown. Yes, those dogs are truly faithful, whether the blind owner is crossing a street or shopping in a store. Thosedogs know their purpose. In closing, WALLS will tell you about Ted Glazier. Ted was blind since 10 years old and he attended the Seeing Eye Institute as a teacher of veterans and also was a student at Dartmouth College, in New Hampshire. When Seeing Eye Institute was featured at Colby Sawyer College, in New London, New Hampshire, Ted attended and asked a question. Immediately, the blind speaker asked: “Is that you Ted Glazier?” Ted’s seeing eye dog was the first to respond and guided Ted to the stage and blind speaker. Quite a moment for sure!