2 posts tagged “hearing dogs”

.  .  .  .  .  ." Until what? "

Until I am jumping out of a plane at 10,000ft.

" Why would you want to jump out of a perfectly sound plane? " some may ask.

I am doing it to raise funds and awareness for the Charity Hearing Dogs for Deaf People.

Plus it is something I have fancied doing since I was about 16. I am quite excited about it.

Please sponsor me here: http://www.justgiving.com/KarenLawe

Hearing Dogs for Deaf People selects dogs mostly from rescue centres and trains them to alert a deaf person to everyday sounds around the home such as the doorbell and the alarm clock. http://hearingdogs.org.uk .

 I have been involved with this charity for about four years now as a volunteer in many aspects. I have walked the dogs in training and in assesment kennels, I have been a full time puppy socialiser for most of those four years, I give talks to help raise awareness of the charity, I assist at events and with the task of mailouts.

This year is Hearing Dogs 25th Anniversary so I thought I would take on a few challenges to raise some money for them. Aswell as the parachute jump on 12th July I will be walking on hot coals on 25th August at the charities HQ in Buckinghamshire and swimming with sharks at The Blue Planet Aquarium in Cheshire late in September. The last challenge is a real personal one for me as I am claustraphobic.

Take a look at my sponsor site, it is safe and secure to donate there. If you look please tell others to do the same, a few quid from everyone soon adds up.

On Thursday afternoon I decided to head into town armed with envelopes, containing information about my challenges for Hearing Dogs for Deaf People and how to sponsor me, and Byron, to boldly go into premises that would allow him in (such as banks).

We did all the major banks not a problem and having a Great Dane with you certainly gets peoples attention.

I stopped for a coffee and carrot cake pondering where to go next and decided that the Police station would be a good one to hit. Off we toddled and went into the reception area where I expected to hand the envelope over, give a brief explanation and leave it to be dealt with by the appropriate person. Nope, not that easy. Please wait over there the lady officer indicated vaugley. I pretended to one officer who came over that I had found Byron, he got so engrossed in saying Hello to the dog and checking his obvious ID that he didnt listen when I said I was joking and he was my dog. He wanted to take him 'round the back'.

With that matter cleared up I was lead into the depths of said Police Station to see an officer  who wanted to know about Hearing Dogs and what I was doing to raise money for them. It is a good job I am a speaker for the charity and could answer all his questions - he even took notes, I guess its the Policeman in him. Anyway he said he will do all he can to persaude each shift to sponsor me over the next couple of weeks. On the way back out many policepeople wanted to make a fuss of Byron. I gave them adequate goober warnings but they were not heeded well enough and three officers ended up well and truly goobered all down their trousers. Only one of them was on the way home rather than out to walk the streets. Its no good just wiping goober on clothing,  it only spreads. They soon learnt this whilst trying to clean up. I so love having a Great Dane, I get hours of amusement from it.