Shadow (4 page)

“How old is he?”

“Can we pat him?”

“How does he know which way to go?”

Lizzie was probably the only one in class who wasn't shouting out questions. She just sat there, staring at Simba and at Maria's mother. Lizzie felt her face flush red as she remembered how she had acted the day before, showing off how much she knew about blind people. Of course Maria knew more than she did! When Maria went back to her seat, Lizzie gave her a special smile, hoping she would understand how sorry she felt. Maria smiled back.

Mrs. Abeson called for everyone to quiet down. “One question at a time,” she said. She asked Maria's mom if she'd like to sit down, and told her how to find the chair she had set up at the front of the classroom. When Mrs. Santiago was sitting, with Simba lying quietly next to her, Mrs. Abeson called on Noah.

“Where did you get Simba?” asked Noah.

“I got him from a foundation that trains guide dogs for the blind,” said Mrs. Santiago. “He spent the first year of his life with puppy-raisers. Those are families who volunteer to bring up future guide dogs and teach them basic manners. Then the foundation trained him to work with a blind person. Then they trained
me
how to work with a dog!” She smiled. “Finally, Simba and I were matched up and we graduated together.”

Next, Mrs. Abeson called on Daniel. “Does he live in the house with you?” Daniel asked.

“Oh, yes,” said Mrs. Santiago. “He's with me all the time. But he's more than a pet. He's a working dog. And to answer another question I heard before, you should not pat a guide dog when he's working. It can distract him.” She leaned down to pat Simba. “But he gets plenty of affection. And if he's not working, and if you ask first, a guide dog's owner might give you permission to pat him.”

Mrs. Santiago told them all kinds of interesting
things about working with a guide dog. Like, she said that Simba did not necessarily know which way to go until she told him. So it was up to her to know when to turn right or left. But Simba
did
know how to help her cross a street safely. “If he sees danger, he won't let me cross even if I have given the signal to go,” she said.

“What if you want to go to a restaurant?” Caroline asked, without even raising her hand. “Can he go with you?”

Mrs. Santiago nodded. “It's the law. Guide dogs can go anywhere. Simba goes to the post office with me, to stores, to the bank, and to restaurants. He knows how to behave no matter where he is.” She smiled down at her dog. “Right, Simba?”

Simba's tail thumped on the floor.

Lizzie loved every minute of Mrs. Santiago's visit. She learned more about guide dogs than she had ever known before, and she even got to try out walking with Simba, holding on to his harness.

At lunchtime, Lizzie asked Maria to sit with her. “Simba is amazing!” she said.

“I know,” Maria said. “He makes life so much easier for my mom. He's a real hero.”

That was when Lizzie had the best idea ever.

“Shadow could be a guide dog for a blind person!” Lizzie told Charles. They were in Lizzie's room, after school. “I told Maria my idea, and she agrees that he'd be perfect for the job. Think about it!” She reminded Charles of the way Shadow took care of the Bean. “Plus,” Lizzie said, “we could be his puppy-raisers. That way we could keep Shadow for a whole year!”

Lizzie explained to Charles what Maria had told her about puppy-raisers and how they were responsible for helping guide dog puppies grow up healthy. They have to teach the puppies about all kinds of places and people so they will be prepared to deal with anything when they are working with a blind person. That means puppy-raisers
take their puppies with them to school, to work, to stores, on elevators — everywhere!

Charles had Shadow on his lap. He was stroking the puppy's head. Shadow looked up at him, wrinkling his little forehead as if he were trying hard to understand what Charles and Lizzie were talking about.

Shadow kept hearing his name. He knew the boy and girl were talking about him. They sounded excited. That must mean something good was going to happen!

“Wow,” said Charles. He was quiet for a moment. “It sounds like fun. But then — after a year, what happens?”

“Well, then we give him to the training center and they teach him how to be a guide dog, and then he gets matched up with a blind person.” Lizzie had talked some more with Maria about how the whole system worked.

“So — after a whole year, we'd have to give him up?” Charles asked. He hugged Shadow, burying his face in the puppy's neck. “I don't know about that.”

“It would be hard,” Lizzie admitted. When she thought about it, she didn't know how she could do it. If she loved Shadow this much after only a few days, how could she stand letting him go after a year? “Sometimes the puppies don't work out as guide dogs,” she said. “If their health isn't perfect or if their personality isn't right. Then the puppy-raisers are allowed to adopt them permanently.”

“But Shadow would work out,” Charles said.

“Probably,” Lizzie said. Then she told Charles about how the puppy-raisers get to go to the graduation, when the blind person and the dog finish training and go off to start their new lives together. “That would be cool,” Lizzie added. “Maria says everybody cries.”

Charles looked thoughtful. On his lap, Shadow stretched and yawned, waking up from his nap. Then the puppy licked Charles on the chin and
started to squirm around, trying to get off Charles's lap. “Okay, buddy,” Charles said. “I'll take him out for a bathroom break,” he said to Lizzie.

Lizzie and Charles both knew that a puppy usually needed to go outside right after he woke up. “Great,” said Lizzie. “I'm going to go on the Internet and see if I can find out more about how Shadow can become a guide dog.”

She turned on her computer. Lizzie loved doing research, especially if it had anything to do with dogs.

It didn't take long for Lizzie to find out that there was a guide dog foundation nearby. It was called Helping Eyes, and it trained ten dogs a year for blind people. Lizzie got more and more excited as she looked at page after page of pictures. Most of the dogs were Labrador retrievers, both black and yellow.

She read about what kind of personality a guide dog should have. There were pictures of the people
at the foundation testing puppies to see if they had that personality.

She saw pictures of the dogs when they were with their puppy-raisers. They wore little blue vests that read G
UIDE
D
OG IN
T
RAINING
. That way, you could take the puppy into a store or the post office without getting into trouble.

She saw pictures of the same puppies a year or so later. Now they were grown dogs wearing harnesses, being trained to walk a straight line down a sidewalk and to stop at the curb when crossing a street.

And she saw pictures of the dogs at graduation. They looked so proud as they stood beside their new owners.

Lizzie got more and more excited as she read. When Charles came back, she showed him everything she'd found.

“So what do we do next?” Charles asked. “Should we talk to Mom and Dad about it?”

Lizzie shook her head. “Let's wait until we know
if they'll take him,” she said. She clicked on a button that read, E-
MAIL US!

“Dear Helping Eyes,”
she wrote.
“My name is Lizzie Peterson. I am ten years old and I have two younger brothers. My family is taking care of a very special black Labrador retriever puppy named Shadow. He is the smartest puppy ever. He's great with people, especially kids. He even kept my littlest brother, Adam, from falling down the stairs! I think he would be a great guide dog for a blind person, and I think our family would make great puppy-raisers.”
She asked them to write back right away and let her know if they wanted Shadow to be part of their program.

Maybe, just maybe, Lizzie had found the perfect place for this puppy.

She had a hard time getting to sleep that night. She kept picturing Shadow the puppy in a little blue vest, and Shadow the grown-up dog in a harness, helping a blind person do everything and go everywhere they wanted to go.

In the morning, Lizzie jumped out of bed and turned on her computer before she even got dressed for school. Maybe the Helping Eyes people had written back!

Sure enough, there was an e-mail waiting for her.
“Re: Shadow,”
the subject line said. Lizzie took a deep breath and clicked to open it.

“Dear Lizzie,”
the e-mail said.
“Shadow sounds like a wonderful puppy. Unfortunately, we breed almost all of the dogs in our program ourselves.”
Lizzie knew what that meant. They kept the best, smartest dogs to be parents to the puppies they trained for blind people. She kept reading.
“Sometimes a breeder will donate a puppy, and if it has papers, is in good health, and has the right personality for being a guide dog, we will accept it. But this is very rare.”

“Lizzie! Breakfast!” Mom called from downstairs.

Lizzie read the rest of the e-mail quickly.
“Thank you for contacting Helping Eyes,”
it said.
“Good luck with Shadow! I'm sure you'll find him a terrific home.”
It was signed Nancy Donovan.

Downstairs, Lizzie plopped down in her chair and frowned at her cereal bowl. Shadow trotted over and started to attack her slipper, but not even that could make her smile. Charles gave her a “what happened?” look and she just shook her head. He got the message. The answer was no.

“What's the matter, honey?” Mom asked.

“Nothing,” Lizzie said. “Just that we thought maybe we found Shadow a home, but I guess it's not going to work out.”

Mom nodded. She could tell Lizzie didn't want to talk about it any more right then. Mom was good about that. “Well, it's good to hear that you're trying,” she said. “Because this puppy needs a good home — soon! Our trip is next week.”

Charles looked down at the Bean and Shadow, who were rolling around on the floor wrestling. “He looks pretty happy right here,” Charles said.

“He does,” admitted Mom. “But —”

“We know, we know,” Lizzie said. Charles joined
in. “This family is not ready for a full-time dog!” they said together.

On the way to school, Lizzie told Charles what the Helping Eyes people had said.

“But if they could only meet Shadow,” Charles said, “they would take him in a minute! He
does
have papers, and he's healthy.”

“I know,” Lizzie said. “And I think he has the right personality, too. But they're not even interested in meeting him.”

“Maybe we could
get
them interested,” said Charles.

That got Lizzie thinking. At lunch that day, she told Maria about what Helping Eyes had said. Maria agreed with Charles. “I have a digital camera,” she said. “I got it for my birthday, and I already learned to use it. We can take some pictures of Shadow and send them to Helping Eyes. Maybe if they see him, they'll start to understand what a great dog he is.”

“That's an excellent idea!” said Lizzie. “We can explain that he has papers, too. And I was also thinking that we could give him some of the puppy personality tests Helping Eyes uses. I read about them last night. Then they'll see that he has the perfect personality to be a guide dog.”

Maria came home from school with Lizzie and Charles. Shadow and the Bean met them at the front door. The Bean had peanut butter all over his face, and Shadow was licking him helpfully.

“Oh, what a serious little face!” Maria said when she saw Shadow. “He's adorable!” She smiled at the Bean. “And you're pretty cute, too,” she said. “Even with peanut butter all over you.”

The Bean smiled back and woofed at Maria. She laughed. Then she scooped Shadow into her arms. “How about a puppy hug?” she asked. “You know, I never got to spend time with Simba when he was this little, because he was with his puppy-raisers.”