Let me introduce you our new team: Antónia and her guide dog, Felhő. Ani has been visually impaired since birth and has always used a white cane. As she told us, she has been apprehensive of dogs since she was a little girl and couldn’t imagine ever leaning on one. It was unbelievable for her that such a close relationship can develop between a human and a dog that allows this unconditional trust. Why she wanted a guide dog? When she worked at the Invisible Exhibition, she noticed how her fast and dynamically arrived hervcolleagues who used guide dogs, while she walked towards the entrance slowly and amidst unbelievable concentration with her white cane. Then her brother, who is also visually impaired, told her that he certainly would like to have a guide dog and would request one from our school. As a result of these experiences and after inquiring a lot from her colleagues and friends about guide dogs, she decided to have such a wonderful four-legged.
Felhő wound his way into Ani’s heart right when they first met. He walked into Ani’s apartment and made himself comfortable as if he were at home already. Much to her astonishment, Ani wasn’t afraid of him at all. Then they went to Miskolc together for the one-week residential to learn to walk and travel together confidently and safely.
This is what Ani told about the week she spent with us:
“The most significant experience of my life so far is that such a close relationship has developed between me and Felhő. When we had to find our way back in a wood to the car, I felt that I trust him, he listened to me, maybe more than a human. I feel safe with him. During this week our relationship has deepened: we love and understand each other better. Felhő is a real miracle:actually, I don’t even find the words to what he means to me.”