Noel

Here's a bright spot in my day...my dog, Noel. (Pronounced Nole). It has to be a one syllable word and you'll see why. I didn't name him. He's got a great story....you may want a hanky for this one. Noel was born in to the seeing eye dog program, thus the one syllable name. Raised as a seeing eye dog and trained within an inch of his life. Beautiful temperament, generous, and without a doubt shows unconditional love. Unfortunately, after two years of training 8 hours a day, he failed his exit exam. That entails going to Home Depot with his vest and leash on, guiding a person through the store and...having a huge pallet dropped in front of him. It scared him to death and that was the end of his career.

If they fail that test, the dogs are placed as companion dogs for "physically challenged" folks. He was bought for a hefty price by a family across the street when we lived in Tampa on Davis Islands. Their daughter, falls into that category. The sweet mom hired my son to walk him twice a day. At one point, her daughter and mother were having health problems and she asked us if we could keep the dog. We were elated and felt as if we had reached heaven. We loved Noel so much and were thrilled that he would be a part of our family.

I think that must have been hard for them to give him up. It did help that we moved back to Atlanta shortly afterward. Noel is as good as it gets. Kind, to a fault. A real prince. He is aging a little quicker than we'd like. With diabetes and several large cysts all over his body, he gets 2 shots a day and wouldn't dare complain about it. Such a gentleman. Diabetes causes loss of sight and numbness in his feet. The doctor says he can see shadows and shapes at best. With as much as he bumps into things, I'm not sure he sees that much.


We love him like the day is long...even if he can't guide you across an intersection anymore, he can guide your heart....to a place that shows you what love looks like. A place where nothing is hard and no one gets hurt. He is .... all about the heart.