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.

I lost the right to vote privately and anonymously in 1985. That’s the year I lost my sight.
After that, I needed Mike to help me with a ballot.
We’d squeeze into a voting booth – Mike, me and my Seeing Eye dog — and Mike would read the candidates aloud. I’d tell him who I wanted, he’d help me punch the right candidate, and everyone in the place knew who I was voting for.
Not anymore!
Thanks to speech synthesizers and the hard work of disability rights advocates, I vote on my own now. With sound added to the ballot, I put on headphones, listen to the choices, and punch a button on the keyboard. All by myself.
I live in Illinois, one of the states holding a primary on Super Tuesday. Wondering who I’ll vote for? I’m not telling. I don’t have to anymore!

    A teenager came up to chat with me after last week’s event at the Oak Park Public Library. “I have a poem published on the internet,” she said.
I was impressed, but I was busy signing books. I didn’t have time to ask what the poem was about. “Send me the link,” I told her. She did.
Her poem is published on a web site Called “Lose the Training Wheels.” Turns out the teenager is an identical twin. Without being able to see her, I had no idea she had any sort of disability. She and her sister were born prematurely, though, and the teen writer participated in a bike therapy program.
Here’s her poem. I think it’s great:
Learning to Ride — A Poem About Bike Riding
By Jessica

Unconquerable, undefeated, and proud
The wheels turning,
People whizzing past my face,
I wanted to learn
I wanted to ride
But I just couldn’t

My pink bike with “balance wheels”
People laughing,
As I felt hurt down deep within

I tried and tried but fell
It was frustrating
But I got back up again and tried again and again

Finally, the pink bike – the “balance wheels” gone forever
I felt like a mighty king at the top of a mountain,
Who was now unconquerable, undefeated, and proud.

Way to go, Jessica. You oughta be proud!

    This Thursday at 7 pm I’ll be speaking at the public library in Oak park, Illinois.
Oak park is the birthplace of Ernest Hemingway. I like to think that the Nobel Prize winner and I have a special bond.
It’s not true, of course, but I like to think it.
After all, Ernest and I were both born in Chicago suburbs. We’re both writers, and both of us thought it’d be cool to live in Paris someday.
But wait. There’s more. The company that published my children’s book is called Blue Marlin Publications. Get it? BLUE MARLIN? They’re named for the fish in “The Old man and the Sea.”
And so, considering this tight bond, it will be a special honor to speak at the Public Library in Ernest’s hometown. Ernest Hemingway was born in Oak Park in 1899 and stayed there until his teens. From there he moved to Kansas City to write for a newspaper, then he sailed to Europe to drive an ambulance for the Red Cross in Italy. He was injured there and was awarded the Italian Silver Medal for Valor.
I got the rest of the story from a web site describing the Hemingway House in Oak park.
“Not long after, he would return to the Chicago suburbs to nurse his wounds, and shortly after he was healed, moved on to Paris and a more spectacular life.”
And that, of course, was the beginning of Hemingway’s demise. After all, how could anything be more spectacular than life in Oak park??
Here are details about my spectacular event this Thursday. Magic Tree Bookstore will provide books for me to sign after the event:
January 24 (Thursday), 7 p.m.
Oak Park Public Library
Session: From Memoir to Doggoir: Creative Ways to Get Personal Essays and Stories Published
834 Lake Street
Oak Park, IL 60301
www.oppl.org
Contact: Deborah Dowley Preiser, Public Information Officer, 708.697.6915

This just in: Home Education Magazine highlighted “Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound” in a recent blog post. The blogger said Blue Marlin Publications sent along a flier announcing some of their new books, and “This one caught my attention”:
Block quote start

Hanni And Beth: Safe & Sound
By Beth Finke
Illustrations by Anthony Alex LeTorneau

Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound, is the story of how Beth, who is blind, travels safely around the city–to work, shopping, even to baseball games–with the
help of Hanni, a specially-trained Golden/Labrador Retriever. It’s a touching tale of mutual devotion and teamwork.

Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound includes factual information about how Hanni was raised and trained, how Beth and Hanni learned to work together as a team,
and what it’s like to be blind.

The author, Beth Finke is also an NPR commentator, teacher and journalist. You can learn more about her at her blog…”

Back to me: Home Education Magazine reviews and describes Learning resources (with space for comments) for homeschoolers. Thanks for the recognition, Home Ed Mag — it’s fun to think Hanni & I might be the subject of discussions in home schools across the country.