Whitney and I are back from the Association of Writers and Writing Programs conference in Seattle just in time to prepare for a presentation at a library in the Chicago suburbs tomorrow. A description in this week’s Lake Zurich Courier tells me not to plan on saying much! GUIDING PRINCIPLES Children and adults are invited […]

My retired Seeing Eye dog Hanni turns 14 years old today. Loyal dog followers know that after Hanni retired from guide work, she went to live with our dear friends Nancy and Steven. To celebrate the big day, they’re heading out for a run in the snow at Homer Lake, a nearby forest preserve. I […]

The Kenilworth kindergartners squealed with delight when Whitney led me into their school wearing snow boots. “That‘s our special guest Mrs. Fink,” their teacher announced. “And that’s Hanni, the dog from the book, too!” We’d arrived late (our commuter train had been delayed in Chicago due to weather) and our opening assembly had to be […]

Last Friday Whitney and I took a train to Deerfield, a suburb of Chicago, to talk with second graders at Kipling Elementary School. It was “Disability Awareness Week” at Kipling, and the kids asked a lot of questions during the Q & A part of the presentation. Some examples: Does Whitney like other dogs? How […]

I have a part-time job moderating the Easter Seals blog, and today we published a post there that I wrote about guide dogs and winter weather. I thought you Safe & Sound blog readers might find it interesting, too, so here it is. The cold and snowy weather last week had a lot of people […]