"Take her hand and show her..." Oh, come on...

It’s all wet outside! For the last two days that water has kept coming down from the sky, and no matter how hard I shake myself it won’t stop. I keep looking back to see if Bracha will get the hint and do something to make it stop, but I guess she can’t. But it’s nice afterwards when we come home because she dries my back, tummy, and paws off and then I curl up and go to sleep.

Hooray! We went to the basketball court again anyway! There was no way I was gonna spend another day cooped up without a good run. I found something marvelous to play with over there, too: an old deflated basketball. Boy, did I have a great time! Every time Bracha called me and said “tnee” I dropped it at her feet and she made that clicking sound, praised me, and gave me a treat.

Then we went to Tzvi and I located the dowar as usual and put my nose right on the mailbox, and I got praised again, and Bracha was proud of me. Bracha tricked someone into thinking I understand those little squiggly marks on the mailboxes. She told them I knew our box was number 151. Psst! I don’t. It’s just that I know where our box is among all the boxes. Bracha opened it and there was a piece of paper in there and we went inside to get a registered letter.

Inside there was a lady holding forth and complaining to Tzvi about something or other, and we had to wait quietly and patiently until she finally started winding down. Bracha gave the piece of paper to Tzvi and he gave her the letter. Than he asked her to sign a piece of paper saying she had gotten the letter.
Bracha said, “Show me where to sign, Tzvi. I can’t see it.” So Tzvi took his pen and made an “X” near the little box where she was supposed to sign. Bracha tried to put the pen next to the X, but it was difficult for her to find the right place. Tzvi asked if Bracha wanted him to sign instead, but before Bracha could answer, suddenly the woman who had been complaining piped up again.

“No,” she said. “Take her hand and show her the right place.”

I didn’t understand why she didn’t talk to Bracha instead of telling Tzvi what to do. It was almost as if for her Bracha was a piece of furniture and not a real person and others have to speak for her and tell her what to do because she isn’t smart. It was creepy, like she saw me and assumed that because Bracha has a guide dog she also can’t hear or think for herself. (Let me tell you, I can’t even quietly chomp on a stolen avocado in the orchard without getting caught because no matter how quietly I chew, Bracha hears me and takes it away!)

Anyway, sure enough, it seemed that Bracha didn’t like her attitude at all, because she asked the lady, “Would you please speak to me directly? I don’t see very well, but I CAN hear.”

The lady must have felt just like I did when I got caught snitching the cookie off the coffee table the other day, because she didn’t answer and scuttled out the door in an awfully big hurry. Then Bracha told Tzvi she was tired of looking for the little box where she had to sign on the paper, and could he just sign it for her please? Evidently that’s what Bracha wanted in the first place. It seemed to me that was the smartest thing to do.

Then we left and walked home a new way down a street where there were lots of concrete blocks and parked cars, and I had to maneuver between them. And I know I did a good job.