Gillian's Isle

Ask any guide dog user. They’ll tell you. When a guide dog encounters a fellow worker, the two dogs seem to act…well…respectful of each other.

We had a chance to experience this phenomenon at the Outer Banks of North Carolina last week. I did a book signing at Manteo Booksellers there, and a friend piloted his plane in for the event.

Yes, fans, you read that right. Someone actually flew in for the chance to purchase a copy of Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound. Our friend Brand is a physics professor at North Carolina State. He has his pilot’s license and owns a share of a small plane.

That's Bridgette, off-harness on the ground, and Gillian on the wing of Brand's plane as they arrived in Manteo.

Brand’s wife Sue came along for the ride, and they invited a friend to fly with them, too. Their friend, Gillian Lindt, was the first woman to serve as dean of faculty for the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Columbia University. Gillian is in her 70s now, and she has macular degeneration. She found a white cane frustrating, so she decided to train with a guide dog instead. From The Guideway, a publication of the Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind:

Lindt partnered with Bridgette, a Labrador/Poodle cross in 2005. “Bridgette is a perfect match for my lifestyle and personality,” she says.

Bridgette was also a perfect match for Hanni. Mike, Hanni and I stayed with our friends Katherine and Larry Bray during our four-night stay at the Outer banks. The Brays live right on the ocean, and they generously invited Brand and his brood to come over and share the ocean deck with us once the book signing was finished.

Katherine and Larry are dog lovers, and they marveled at the way Bridgette and Hanni lay motionless at our feet, eyeing each other up as we humans chatted away overhead. One couldn’t help but wonder what the two dogs thought of each other. I pictured them in one of those New Yorker cartoons, you know, the ones where readers are invited to write in with suggested captions.

That's Katherine Bray and I enjoying a glass of wine on Katherine and Larry's splendid oceanfront deck.

Needless to say, the Brays were tickled to provide a little R&R for not just one, but two working dogs. They spoiled us humans, too, supplying us with a tasty crushed lemonade/mint drink to enjoy. As Katherine pressed the chilled glasses into our hands, she said, “If y’all want vodka in there, too, just let me know!” Gillian was happy to take Katherine up on the offer. “I’m not driving home,” she laughed. And after all, it was yappy hour.