OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - Sandi Webster had always wanted a big dog. Camelot, a 4-year-old, black Labrador retriever, is with her almost 24/7. When she goes out, he is always by her side.
Camelot is Webster’s second guide dog since she lost her sight in 2002 after her eye disease was inflamed by a bout of the flu, The Oklahoman (https://bit.ly/1AcUivA ) reported.
“I knew I wanted a dog. We have always had pet dogs, and I thought this is something that can help give me more freedom and get me around easier,” Webster said. “They make it so much easier than using a cane. With a cane you have to peck your way up to something, (and) figure out what it is. With a guide dog, they’re trained to just basically take you around things. If they are in your walkway, they stop for curbs, ups and downs, things like that. They just take you around obstacles, so it is so much easier.”
Webster lost her sight after contracting the flu with a high fever. She had lost her sight in her right eye about 30 years before that but the fever caused her vision loss to jump to her left eye as well.
“(It was) pretty much terrifying. It was like I would trip over things in my own home. My husband and sons were very protective. Thank goodness for my daughter. She was the one that said, ’If you need help, ask for it. Let’s see what you can do,’” she said.
Webster went to school in Boston to learn to cook and clean after the state Rehabilitation Services Department taught her to use a cane. There, she learned to fence to help her anticipate how people are moving and took a woodworking class.
Afterward, she applied for and trained with a dog through the Guide Dogs for the Blind. She got a dog named Bolton.
“He was an old man when I got him. That was his countenance. He worked and went home and just played around the house and played with the grandkids some,” Webster said.
In 2012, Bolton died when he was 6 years old after someone broke into Webster’s backyard at her northwest Oklahoma City home.
“It was like losing your best friend,” she said.
That same year, Webster went back to Guide Dogs for the Blind and trained with a new dog named Camelot. They have been together for more than two years.
“You tell the dog what to do. The dog doesn’t tell you where you are going. They don’t read house numbers or see red lights. You’ve got to listen for traffic. You’ve got to tell them whether you are going two blocks forward and when you need to turn left. You don’t tell them all at once,” she said. “You listen to what they are telling you through the harness or leash and they listen to the commands you give.”
While the dog listens to her commands, Webster said she has learned to also listen to Camelot. One example was when Webster decided to not take Camelot with her to the mailbox the day after a snow storm earlier this month. Camelot tried to warn Webster against the idea. Webster ended up breaking several bones in her foot.
“Going out, I just have to listen to what he is telling me through the harness. He will keep me safe. When I get in trouble is when I don’t listen to him,” Webster said. “I learned to listen to him when he says don’t.”
With the dog, Webster said she has traveled to the East Coast and to the West Coast and is able to continue to have the freedom of movement that she had before.
“I don’t go any place without him. It is a very close bond. It’s interesting when I lost Bolton, the church had a funeral service for him. He was such a part of the organizations that I belong to and he was with me. You spend more time with them than you do with any person you love,” she said.
Webster is now president of the Heartland Council of the Blind, a group that gets together once a month for events to socialize and to teach others going through vision loss to help with their transition.
“Our people are just people. They just have to do things a little bit differently and we are always trying to figure out what to do to make things easier,” she said. “Being blind is certainly not the worst thing in the world. We can still do things for ourselves and for others. … We may do things differently but we are just people and to treat us as such. We’re not that different.
“We’re not usually asking for anything extra. We just want to be a part of the community and give back.”
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Information from: The Oklahoman, https://www.newsok.com
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