Aamer's dream come true

About a year and a half ago Bracha and I sat down on the train to Tel Aviv when a young man approached us. He said he had heard Bracha giving me commands and realized that there was a woman with a guide dog. He was curious because he was also blind and was thinking of getting a dog. He was from Peki'in and still lived with his parents, and they did not feel that a dog in the house was a good idea. THey were afraid that a dog would make a mess, shed, and misbehave. He therefore had talked to Beit Oved, but had not gotten a dog, and got around with a cane.

Bracha started trying to encourage him to get a dog. She said he could come to our house and bring his parents, and they could see how clean, well-behaved, and good I was. I could tell he was tempted. After that we heard nothing more from him. But when Bracha heard that a man called Aamer from Peki'in had just gotten a dog, she began to wonder if it was the same Aamer we had met on the train.

Sure enough, today when the phone rang Bracha looked at me and said, "Suki, there's a surprise! Ami is stopping by to visit. And then there was Ami, opening the gate and I was so excited to see him! Bracha told me to sit and it was all I could to to keep my rear end on the ground. Soon we sat down and Ami told Bracha that Aamer was indeed the young man we had met on the train! He has a Labrador retriever, and is now finishing the course! Ami and a new trainer named Natanel are his trainers. Bracha said she'd call him to see how things were going. Good for Aamer for convincing his parents to let him have a dog. And maybe, just maybe, I did a bit of the convincing myself.