Honey’s Christmas wish!
Guide Dog Honey and her friend Sarah were inseparable for over seven years.
Now it’s time for Honey to retire, and Sarah needs another friend to give her the confidence and freedom to navigate everyday life.
With your compassionate gift of this Christmas, we can continue to train world-class Guide Dogs like Honey. Will you please help?
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Hello there! My name is Honey and I am Sarah’s best friend. I will never forget the day we met, when I was just a young dog fresh out of training. I just knew she was the one! 😊
Sarah and I spent seven and a half busy, wonderful years working together, but now it’s time for me to hang up my harness. Life is lovely as a retired dog. Now I get to spend lots of time chilling out with Sarah and relaxing at home. (But some days, I do miss those busy, fulfilling times of my life!)
I do hope Sarah doesn’t have to wait too long to find another Guide Dog to help her. She’s a busy, fun and energetic person, with people to see and places to go! She’s using her cane right now, but I know it’s not her favourite thing.
“One day, you’ll be a Guide Dog and find your paw-fect match!”
Way back when I was just a puppy-in-training, our trainers would tell me and my friends about the day they would help us find our paw-fect match.
We loved hearing that story. It made us all wag our little tails in excitement! We were very ambitious, wanting to be grown-up, independent dogs with an important job. There was a lot of work to do to become fully qualified Guide Dogs, but we were keen as mustard!
Ah, those were the days! It all seemed so far away when we were small.
My memories of those early days are a little foggy – after all, I’m now 66 in people years! But I’ll always remember my lovely mum. She had such kind brown eyes, and she took great care of me and my siblings.
When I turned eight weeks old, I bravely wagged goodbye to my mum and siblings and left home to live with my wonderful Puppy Raiser. Life with new humans was great fun. There were people to play with, someone to take me for walks, and a brand new coat to wear. I was so proud of my first coat. I have grown out of it now!
My Puppy Raiser spent a lot of time teaching me about the world. We were always out and about and on public transport. I quickly learnt the right way to tuck myself (and my tail – haha) out of the way under a bus or train seat. I picked up new skills really quickly and was eager to please. It was an active, exciting and challenging time. I loved training, especially group training sessions with my friends.
You know, I just knew guiding was my dream career. There are lots of very important jobs to do as a working dog, like an Assistance or Therapy Dog. But my trainer said I had lots of energy and stamina, and showed excellent early skills and could lead out with confidence.
Then when I was two, I went on a very im-paw-tant walk around Victoria Park.
That was the day I met my wonderful Sarah. I think it was meant to be – we had an instant connection.
Sarah said I was lovable and sweet but also seemed a bit cheeky! Our first walk together went so well, Trainer Katie removed the second lead and Sarah and I just kept walking on and on. After a couple of weeks of careful training, we were off on our own – and what amazing adventures we have had!
We travelled to Brisbane on a plane, stayed in motels and attended concerts. We did a hike up into the Glasshouse Mountains. Do you know I was the first ever dog to go down the stairs of The Lake Cave in Margaret River? We kept fit together, doing fun runs, yoga and reformer Pilates – I am an expert at downward dog!
I helped Sarah with her career, too. She is a massage therapist, so I went to work with her every day on the train, and once we arrived, my job was to lie under the table, have a snooze and relax!
I was excellent at finding too, which was really helpful for her – find the seat, find the door, find the ATM, find the bin, even find the car, which was great when Sarah’s husband couldn’t remember where it was parked!
I think Sarah is just paw-some. I love her so much.
Sarah has had a lot to cope with in her life. She was just 15 when she was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa. It must have been so hard because she was only a teenager.
In Year 11, she reached out for help at school. An understanding teacher helped connect her with special support and soon she was taking orientation and mobility training with a white cane.
As she got older, Sarah struggled because she was self-conscious about using the cane and ended up with some injuries. It was a very tough time for her. Then one day she met someone on a train who had a Guide Dog and struck up a conversation – and the rest is history!
I’ll be watching carefully when the trainers find a match for Sarah. She’s a very special person and I want her to have the very best Guide Dog, like me! It will be exciting to have a young one around the house to share my experience and knowledge with.
I expect I will feel a bit sad that Sarah will be out and about with a new friend, but I know how special I am in her life. I’ll be waiting at home for her, with love and cuddles.
Will you please send a special Christmas donation, so we can quickly match Sarah with a new Guide Dog, and get her happy, excited and out into the world again?
Well I’m off for a snooze on the couch – one of the many great things about retirement!
Thank you for caring so much about people like Sarah and Guide Dogs like me.
Lots of love
Honey xx
