A young woman at our New Jersey book signing Sunday said she’d raised a puppy for the Seeing Eye in…get this…her dorm room! Any of you blog readers out there who are scrambling to find just the right college to attend, may I suggest Rowan University or Rutgers in New Jersey, or University of Delaware? All three host programs for students who’d like to raise a Seeing Eye puppy on campus. Here from the Rutgers University Seeing Eye Puppy Raising Club web site:

On campus we have fifteen designated apartments where the puppies are allowed in with either the raiser or the sitter. Puppies are allowed to attend classes with permission from the professor and can ride on the University buses.

Following the puppy-raising portion of our puppies’ lives they return to The Seeing Eye, Inc. campus in Morristown, New Jersey for formal training. Upon arriving they spend the first month or two in one of the training kennels adjusting to kennel life and being evaluated medically. The Seeing Eye also evaluates dogs to incorporate into the breeding program at this time. Dogs that are not chosen for breeding are neutered or spayed and have various tests to determine whether the dog is healthy and physically fit enough to become a Seeing Eye Dog.

Puppy raisers give the dogs affection, teach them basic obedience, and expose them to social situations they might encounter as Seeing Eye dogs. Assuming, that is, they make it through to graduation — it’s estimated that only 50% of the dogs born at the Seeing Eye end up being placed with a person who is blind.

Another woman we met at our booksigning fit that statistic perfectly. Her family had raised two puppies for the Seeing Eye, but only one of them was a working Seeing Eye dog now. “Bedell is working with a blind man in Georgia,” she said. “Petey, the other one, lives with us at home.”

Standards are high for puppies, and the Seeing Eye is strict about which dogs make it through training. Fitzi, the puppy who was raised in a dorm room, was a very docile dog, easy to train as a puppy. In harness, however, Fitzi felt the immense responsibility of guiding his instructor across busy streets. He was withdrawn from training after only a month due to his fear of traffic. And Petey? “He refused to relieve himself on concrete,” his puppy raiser explained. “Seeing Eye dogs have to go on command, and Petey would only go on grass!” The Seeing Eye is careful not to call these dogs “rejects” or failures” – some of them go on to other working dog organizations, some go back to their puppy raisers, some are adopted by other families. All of them move on to make someone, somewhere, very happy.

Signing a book for one of my Fairview, NJ, fans.

It was fun visiting with people who lived so close to the Seeing Eye. The kids Hanni and I met on our school and library visits on Monday and Tuesday had all seen working Seeing Eye dogs before. Some of them even mentioned the statue of Buddy, the first ever Seeing Eye dog, in the town square in Morristown. During my talk at North Arlington Library on Monday I mentioned the puppy raisers I’d met the weekend before at Mendham Books. Sure enough, when it came to the Q&A, one woman in the audience asked how she could sign up to become a puppy raiser. I beamed.

Hanni and I had a great time in New Jersey and found the people there fun, smart and caring – even though they talk funny. I mean, c’mon. Who calls an Italian sub a “sangwich”?! We hugged our very gracious host and chauffeur (librarian Stephanie Balucci) goodbye at Newark on tuesday. Upon landing safe & sound in Chicago that evening, Hanni and I were reminded how important it is that a Seeing Eye dog be able to “empty” on concrete: there’s no grass at O’Hare!

Cheers to Hanni for keeping us Safe & Sound.

Every couple of weeks, Hanni and I take the train from Chicago to Elmhurst and enjoy a glass of wine (or two!) with Flo and my sister Cheryl. Whoever opened that cute little wine bar right across the street from the Elmhurst train station sure knew what they were doing! The three of us try to pick a date that marks a special occasion in the family. Last month we met on my sister Marilee’s birthday, and today marked Cheryl’s daughter and son-in-law’s tenth anniversary.

You might remember my post about visiting Caren and Mark and their two girls in Minnesota last March. Now you can see them here in a “Fighting Childhood Obesity” news clip on Minnesota TV –they’re all superstars!

But back to our wine date. After toasting Caren and Mark’s anniversary, we toasted a review of Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound that came out in New Jersey’s Recorder newspapers today. The timing is perfect: Hanni and I fly to Newark Saturday for a three-day book tour. From the review:

This excellent book should be available in every school and public library.

I’ll toast to that! But wait, there’s more:

The colorful drawings are intriguing, and they show Hanni’s intelligent personality. Hanni talks about how she must disobey Beth’s commands in case she sees dangerous obstacles that Beth can’t see. Seeing Eye dogs can even navigate their companions safely in busy cities and traffic.

Hanni has been doing her fair share of that lately (navigating me through city traffic, that is). She walked me to the downtown Chicago commuter train station to catch the 3:40 to Elmhurst this afternoon, and now she’s sleeping at my feet for the ride back to the Loop.

It is such a gift to have a dog I can count on to get me wherever I want to go, and whenever I feel like getting there. Thanks to Hanni, I felt confident about taking the train out to Elmhurst to meet my sister and mom this afternoon.

Even young children will be able to understand this material about how independent blind people can be. Hanni takes Beth to meetings, concerts, shopping and ball games. She rides on airplanes at Beth’s feet, as other service dogs can also do.

Which reminds me. I’d better get packing for New Jersey. Cheers to the writer who wrote this wonderful review of our book. And most of all, cheers to Hanni.

Some people dismiss national conventions as silly schmoozefests, but I gotta say: I’ve met some pretty darned cool people at the ones I’ve gone to. Guess it never hurts to show up with a cute dog at my side, huh?

Signing books at the ASPCA booth during the American Library Association convention.

Two years later, we’re off to New Jersey! Turns out Stephanie’s mom works at a school in Fairview, too, so the triumvirate arranged it so Hanni and I will have not just one, not two but three different gigs while we’re there: one at Stephanie’s library, one at her aunt’s school, and one at her mom’s school. Sweet!

After those presentations were booked, ahem, I contacted Mendham Books in Mendham, NJ. I’d met the store owners on a bus ride between our hotel and Book Expo America in New York back in 2007. They remembered Hanni and me, and said they’d love to have us.

And so, thanks to two very fun conventions, a New Jersey book tour is born. Hanni and I fly to Newark this Saturday, and librarian Stephanie Burke has generously offered to pick us up at the airport and drive us to our hotel. She’ll chauffeur us to the bookstore event Sunday, then cart us around to our library and school visits on Monday and Tuesday. She’s even offered to take Hanni for walks. Pick up after her, too. Now that’s a true friend!

The school visits are only for staff, students and parents, but the library visit and the bookstore appearance are open to all. Mendham is very close to Morristown, NJ, so we’re hoping to meet up with some old friends from the Seeing Eye School at the bookstore appearance Sunday.

May 23 (Sunday), 1 p.m.
Mendham Books
84 East Main Street
Mendham, NJ 07945
973.543.4949
bseller@mendhambooks.com
www.mendhambooks.com

And we’re looking forward to meeting a lot of new friends at the library appearance on Monday:

May 24 (Monday), 4:30 p.m.
North Arlington Library
210 Ridge Road
North Arlington, NJ 07031
201.955.5640

I’ll be signing books in print and in Braille at both events, and of course Hanni’s paw print will be rubberstamped into every book purchased as well. If you know anyone in New Jersey, please let them know about these two events. And if you live in New Jersey…come!

We’re off to Champaign this afternoon, and a surprise awaits Hanni when we arrive. Our friend Brad is picking us up at the train station, taking Hanni to his house and hosting her very first slumber party.

Brad is one of the folks interested in adopting Hanni when she retires, and we thought it might be a good idea for her to have a trial run, stay overnight with him and his animal companions to make sure they all get along. I’ll be staying overnight with other Urbana friends. Without Hanni. Here’s an understatement for you: it will be weird!

I won’t be without Hanni for long, though. Brad and I are meeting at a Champaign coffee shop tomorrow morning, he’ll return Hanni to me, and she and I will head off to visit Westview Elementary School. After that, we’re off to Jane Addams Bookshop to give a 1 pm presentation on how to get a childrens book published. We chose Westview for our morning visit because our great-nephew Kieran goes there. For my sighted blog readers out there, here’s a photo of Kieran. He is the first-born son of Mike’s nephew Aaron, and Mike says Kieran is the cutest kid ever born. I can’t tell. You be the judge!

We all know Hanni is the cutest dog ever born, though. I hear people exclaim “She’s beautiful!” each and every time we take a walk together. Somehow I know the comment is not directed towards me.

A woman from northern Wisconsin recognized my dog’s beauty way back when Hanni was only two years old. Kay met us at a conference where I was speaking; she put dibs on Hanni right then and there. Kay reads my blog from time to time (hi, Kay!) and I want to reassure her I do plan on honoring her position in line –she was the very first to ask to adopt Hanni when she retires, after all. But Tomahawk, Wisconsin is so far away. I might never get to visit Hanni there. So we’re just trying out Plan B, aka Plan Brad. At the very least, it’ll be fun to find out how Hanni likes slumber parties!

I’m signed up to train with a new dog at the Seeing Eye in Morristown this November. We’ll see what happens then. Hanni is ten years old already, but she’s healthy, she’s good in traffic, and she still knows her lefts from her rights. Her tail still wags when I grab her harness off its hook and call her to go outside. Which I have to do right now. It’s time to catch our train!

Wanna write a children’s book? Know someone who does? Seems like just about every person who reads aloud to a little kid considers, “Gee, maybe I could write one of these someday.”

Hanni and me at the University of Illinois quad.

If you’re one of those people, here’s your chance to find out how it’s done! On Wednesday I’m doing a presentation in Champaign, IL along with two other authors about the nuts and bolts of writing and publishing books for children.We chose this particular Wednesday afternoon because it happens to be one of those shortened days at Champaign schools (they get out at noon) and we thought a lot of teachers and staff members might want to come. Hanni and I will spend Wednesday morning visiting our great nephew Kieran’s classroom at Westview Elementary in Champaign, then off to Jane Addams Bookshop for the afternoon presentation.

The two authors I’m appearing with are a bit more accomplished than I am when it comes to writing for children. Alice B. McGinty has had 40, count them, 40, fiction and non-fiction children’s books published. Her latest, Darwin, is illustrated by Mary Azarian, Caldecott Medal winner for Snowflake Bently. Sara Latta has had dozens of children’s books about science and medicine published. The Good, the Bad, the Slimy: The Secret Life of Microbes and Lava Scientist: Careers on the Edge of Volcanoes are two of my favorite titles.

I see my role Wednesday as representing the person who doesn’t see children’s book writing as a career, maybe, but has an idea for a story they think might sell. I’ll talk about how I thought through my idea, wrote a rough draft, revised the rough draft, researched the market to figure out where to send it out, revised the rough draft, piled up rejection letters, revised the rough draft and finally, finally found a publisher.

I guess what I’m saying here is that Alice and Sarah have a lot more experience (and many more books published!) than I do, so they’ll be able to speak more on making a career of writing children’s books, working with agents and/or different publishers, that sort of thing. We’ll make a good team, I’m sure of that! We’ll all be available afterwards, too, to sign books for anyone interested. If you live anywhere near Champaign, I hope you’ll come:

May 12 (Wednesday), 1 p.m.
Jane Addams Bookshop
How to Get a Children’s Book Published
Panel discussion with fellow children’s book authors Alice McGinty and Sara Latta
208 North Neil Street
Champaign, IL 61820-4013
217.356.2555
www.janeaddamsbooks.com