Susan Krieger - Traveling Blind: Adventures in Vision with a Guide Dog by My Side

Traveling Blind

New Directions in the Human-Animal Bond
Alan M. Beck, series editor

Adventures in Vision with a Guide Dog by My Side

Susan Krieger

Purdue University Press
West Lafayette, Indiana

Copyright 2010 by Susan Krieger. All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Krieger, Susan.

Traveling blind : adventures in vision with a guide dog by my side / Susan Krieger.

p. cm. -- (New directions in the human-animal bond)

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-1-55753-557-3

1. Women with disabilities--Travel--United States. 2. Low vision--United States. 3. Guide dogs--United States. I. Title.

HV1569.3.W65K75 2010

910.4092--dc22

[B]

2009042877

To obtain an accessible PDF version of this book, please contact the publisher at pupress@purdue.edu.

Cover photo courtesy of Estelle Freedman.

For Estelle

When I began to write Traveling Blind, I knew only that I was delighted to be able to see a mountain, its looming figure silhouetted against a stark desert plain. I wanted to write about my trip to that mountain in order to explore issues of blindness. I did not know, at first, that my emerging theme of traveling blind would expand to include the adventure of learning to navigate with a guide dog, the pleasures of sharing the road with my intimate partner, my struggles to accept new interdependencies, and my excitement in discovering magnificent vistas, even if I could see them only incompletely.

I wrote this book with my guide dog, Teela, lying at my feet, my computer speaking aloud both her name and mine; I wrote it over a period of several years during which I revisited the desert places I loved, hoping they would not change as quickly as my eyesight. I wanted the book to contribute to broader understandings of blindness, vision, and disability and to encourage readers who might, like me, confront changed circumstances requiring new vision.

Because I have often felt vulnerable and alone when traveling blind, I am deeply grateful to organizations, friends, and colleagues who have given me support. I especially want to thank Guide Dogs for the Blind in San Rafael, California, for the gift of Teela, my golden guide, who leaves her tracks on many of these pages. During my residence at Guide Dogs in 2003, I benefited from the shared life experiences of my classmates and from the generosity and wisdom of the volunteers, staff, and trainers. I am grateful to Teelas puppy raisersBetsy, Galen, Emily, and Spencer McCraywho nurtured and socialized her during her first sixteen months. I thank Jeniece Thomas, Teelas individual trainer on the Guide Dogs campus, who, for the next five months, taught her how to perform guide work so that when I arrived for the last month, she was ready to lead me.

I thank the Program in Feminist Studies and the Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford University for supporting my teaching and research. I am grateful to the students in my courses on Women and Disabilities, who generously shared their insights and were open to mineparticularly to my desire to view disabilities in a positive manner and as a normal part of life, rather than as a circumstance that must set one apart and cause pity or alarm.

While I worked on the manuscript, individuals gave me close readings, encouragement, and editorial advice that was invaluable. I thank especially Paola Gianturco for her warmth and enthusiasm and for caring that all my sentences be clear. Paola, a photojournalist, often helpfully pointed out parallels between my attempts to see with limited sight and her creative efforts with a camera. I thank Lynn Crawford for encouraging my writing and welcoming my alliance with Teela, as well as for her useful editorial suggestions. Susan Christopher, Mary Felstiner, Elaine Tyler May, and Esther Rothblum read the manuscript critically, providing recommendations that improved the whole. Jack Ellis read drafts of the book twice, sending me extensive and affirming comments. Martin Kriegers early and continuing encouragement was crucial. For reading selected chapters and providing supportive feedback, I thank Zandra Contaxis, John DEmilio, Carmen de Monteflores, Margaret Knight, Ilene Levitt, my mother Rhoda Cahn, and my sister Kathe Morse. For their efforts in moving the book toward publication, I am grateful to Felicia Eth, Pat Holt, Doug Mitchell, and Caroline Pincus.

I thank Alan Beck, who graciously saw possibilities for including Traveling Blind: Adventures in Vision with a Guide Dog by My Side in the Purdue University Press series on New Directions in the Human-Animal Bond. The Purdue Press staffRebecca Corbin, Katherine Purple, Bryan Shaffer, and Director Charles Watkinsonmade the production process move smoothly and insured that the book would be accessible for blind and print-impaired readers.

In Traveling Blind, I include many experiences shared with others who appear here under pseudonyms or anonymously and whose generosity and good company has been a gift. I thank especially Phil Norton, Arnold Sargent, Gabby Tamayo, Gerry Tamayo, and Phoebe Wood for exceptional hospitality; Jodi Clark and Natasha Isenhour for experiences at the gallery; and June Hill, L. G. May, the late Ena Osborn, and Cindy Taetz for welcoming two strangers (and a guide dog) who stopped in off the road. I am grateful to Mark Hakela of the Bureau of Land Management, Las Cruces, for initial directions to Big Hatchet, and to the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance for their efforts to preserve special places like sky islands. I thank the Bear Mountain Lodge in Silver City, run by the Nature Conservancy of New Mexico; the Sierra Grande Lodge and Spa in Truth or Consequences for a uniquely magical night; the ghosts of Hachita old and new; and the town of Socorro for abundant luminarias. During these travels, Zandra Contaxis and Alison Werger watched the home front, caring for our small pet dog Esperanza and our three catsKatie, Shadow, and Sienna.

Words cannot adequately express my deep feelings of gratitude for Estelle Freedman, whom I call Hannah in this book. Estelle both shared in these experiences and improved my writing about them. She has been my editor, my fan club, my home, my delight, my lover, my travel companion, my sighted guide. On our travels, she drove, she watched out for me and Teela, and she often provided me with an extra pair of eyesdescribing vividly scenes and details I could not see until I, too, saw them clearly, if only in my mind. These stories are mine but enriched by her love.

Traveling Blind is a romance, a travel adventure, an emotional quest, and a book about coming to terms with lack of sight. It explores the invisible work of navigating with a guide dog while learning to perceive the world in new ways. In a previous book, Things No Longer There: A Memoir of Losing Sight and Finding Vision, I described my initial experiences of loss of sight.