It’s Hanni’s Golden Birthday today — she’s 8 years old on the 8th of February. We are celebrating Hanni’s birth, of course. But I gotta admit: while Hanni spends the day playing around and giving me paws, she’s giving me that other sort of pause, too.
In the “frequently asked questions” section of the Seeing Eye website you’ll see that The average Seeing Eye dog works, well, you guessed it. Eight years.
Of course, we all know Hanni is wayyyyyy above average. She’ll be working far past her birthday. But this magic number “8” does stress– double meaning definitely intended here – the fact that retirement looms on the horizon.
Different guide dog schools have different policies about retirement. Some schools “rent” the dogs to their users. Those schools have more say as to when the dog should retire. At the Seeing eye, the dog belongs to the guide dog user. That means we are the ones who decide when it’s time for our dogs to quit working. We judge this by their health, and by their willingness to work.
Gee, kinda like human retirement, huh?
When retirement time comes, I can bring Hanni back to The Seeing Eye so they can find someone to adopt her, I can keep Hanni at home while I work with my new dog, or I can give her to a friend.
A dog lover in northern Wisconsin has already offered to take Hanni when she retires. Northern Wisconsin is lovely, but a very long distance from Chicago. It’s hard to imagine traveling more than a couple of feet to hug Hanni. Or trusting a dog other than Hanni to lead me around and keep me safe.
I don’t like thinking about what will happen to my beloved golden retriever/Labrador cross when I go to Morristown for a new dog. But heck, why waste time thinking about that now, anyway? It’s time to celebrate. With good ol’ Hanni.
Aw, man. I hadn’t thought about that yet. I guess I just figured that Hanni was younger than she is. (What is her beauty routine? She’s radiant.) What difficult decisions. Decisions best put off until later, I say. Happy birthday, Hanni!
Hanni’s beauty routine? Hmmm. Let me think.
Well, she doesn’t smoke. She doesn’t drink. She doesn’t snack between meals, and….
Stop! Wait! Just had an idea. This might be a good subject for a future blog post. Stay tuned for “Hanni’s Beauty Routine” some week in the future. For now, time for birthday girl belly rubs.
Happy Birthday to the sweetest unasuming star Hanni- I love the idea of the beauty secrets blog!! What is 8 dog years in human years? Just wondering if we are on the same retirement time line:)
I don’t know how accurate the estimate is, or who made up the idea of “dog years,” but from what I understand, Hanni is 56 in human years now. By her next birthday, she’ll be 63. She may have a long way to go after that, though –Dora, my first Seeing Eye dog, worked until she was 84. And lived to be 119! Maybe along with Hanni’s beauty routine I’ll publish Dora’s guide to long life. Hint: it involves finding a good man to take you in. Lie on his couch all day, urge him to feed you treats, and listen to him tell you how beautiful you are each and every day of your retirement.
Didn’t realize 8 was retirement age. She carries her age very well! Happy Birthday Hanni. Hope you had a great birth day!
Happy Birthday Hanni!
So what did you and Hanni do to celebrate?
Well, it was a Friday, after all. So she celebrated the way I hope any 56-year-old working woman might do – she worked all day, then went to happy hour!
Dear Beth,
I read your blog today and Happy Birthday to Hanni last week! Everyone’s golden birthday is very special, especially for someone so exceptional like Hanni! While it brings me great heartache to think about Hanni retiring someday, I am writing to let you know that my very special friend, Kay, is the northern WI dog lover that you talked about in your message. Kay has been sharing stories about you and Hanni with us for a long time now. She even bought your book “Safe & Sound” for our 9 year old daughter, Jackie. Of course our whole family enjoyed reading Hanni’s book and Jackie even took it to school to share it with her 3rd grade class at her elementary school for several weeks! She read your book to her class and told them she knows the person who wants to adopt Hanni when she retires! “Her friend Kay wants to adopt a real author, can you believe that?”
Kay and I met several years ago when we worked together in the same office and have become good friends and golf partners. We are lucky that we only live 2 miles from each other and see each other a lot! Our family has a two year old female yellow lab, Copper, who is like my third child. You’d think I gave birth again! We are so fortunate that Kay takes care of Copper when we are gone for our two daughter’s sporting events, activities, and family vacations. It’s usually once a month or so for a day or a weekend and also two week-long trips during the year that we can’t take Copper on. When we go on vacation, Kay takes Copper on vacation too! How silly is that?! They’ve gone camping together, swimming on the shores of Lake Superior, on long walks and car rides. Many times Kay will stop over just for fun to get a doggie fix and play fetch with Copper or give her some pets and belly rubs. When Kay leaves our house, Copper sits in the driveway and watches as Kay’s truck leaves the driveway. She sits there until she can no longer hear the sound of her truck in the distance. Then she pouts and sulks back into the house because her Kay is gone.
Being with Kay is so awesome for Copper! I think she loves Kay more than us! As a matter of fact, I know she does, which is just fine with me because I know she is happy, loved, and well-cared for when she isn’t with us. So, if I can give you any consolation about Hanni’s retirement, I have to share with you that there isn’t a more wonderful person in this world who would love Hanni and take care of her when she retires. We are really looking forward to meeting you and Hanni someday!
Lisa Elliott and family,
Tomahawk WI
Hi Beth and Hanni,
I just got addicted to your blog, Beth. Happy belated birthday to Hanni. I am a 26 year old totally blind musician from New York. I’m thinking about gettng a guide dog as soon as I get a place of my own. I’m thinking about going to Guiding Eyes in Yorktown Heights which is not too far from me. Oh, where can I get a copy of your book? I’d love to read it. Thank you for sharing your and Hanni’s story. Have a great day!
Marissa and Gwen the podcasting cockatiel and the rest of the bird crew!
Marissa,
I’ve got a deal for you. I’ll give you the info of where you can get my book if you give me info on where I can hear recordings of your music.
Deal? Okay!
Here’s the info, direct from my web site. Feel free to write me back if you have any problem getting either of my books, and THANKS FOR COMMENTING TO MY BLOG!
“Long Time, No See” is available free of charge on cassette or in Braille from the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically handicapped (NLS).
Through a national network of cooperating libraries, NLS circulates Braille and audio materials postage-free to those prevented from reading due to blindness
or physical handicap.
Eligible borrowers can contact NLS and ask for call numbers RC56482 (cassette) or BR14821 (Braille).
Please note that NLS cassettes are recorded on a slower speed and are unusable on standard tape players. If you do not have a special NLS tape player and
feel you qualify for the NLS program, special tape players can be obtained by phoning the national Library Service for the Blind and Physically handicapped
at: 1-888-NLS-READ (1-888-657-7323). More information is also available at
http://www.loc.gov/nls.
As for the childrens book, Blue Marlin Publications has teamed up with Seedlings Braille Books for Children to produce a number of copies of “Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound” in a special print-Braille format. Braille words appear directly under the printed words, providing visually-impaired children and their sighted parents a wonderful
way to enjoy learning Braille. Print-Braille books are also very popular with blind adults (or older children) who enjoy reading to sighted preschoolers.
To order a copy of “Hanni And Beth: Safe & Sound” in print-Braille, link to
http://www.seedlings.org.
[…] cake, there was also a VERY cool new blog comment waiting at home on my talking computer. It was a response to Hanni’s Happy Birthday blog: “I am a 26 year old totally blind musician from New York. I’m thinking about getting a […]
[…] I blogged about Hani’s eighth birthday last February, people emailed me to tell me about online dog-to-human-year converters. Turns out […]
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