Meeting Michael Hingson

So this post is a little out of order sorry about that. Last Thursday night I was invited to a private event along with a few other puppy raisers to hear Michael Hingson speak. In case you don't know who Michael Hingson is he is the author of the book Thunder Dog (I highly recomend this book). He is also a 9/11 survivor who is blind and uses a guide dog from Guide Dogs for the blind. On 9/11 he was on the 78th floor of the twin towers. He and his guide dog Roselle walked down all the stairs and managed to safely get away from the buildings before they collapsed. In 2011 Roselle crossed over the rainbow bridge and Michael got a new guide dog a female yellow lab named Africa who is now 6.5 years old.

The event started out with a dinner. I'm sure it was quite a sight to see 6 raisers with pups in a buffet line trying to keep the dogs under control while holding our plates and getting food. I'm not sure how we did it but we managed to get our food to the table without spilling. Pinnacle was a little wiggly in the beginning since we had also been at school all day, but after a while he decided to settle down and be good.

Once dinner was over Michael Hingson gave his talk on 9/11, blindness, and team work. It was a motivating speech and a great reminder as to why I raise these pups. I highly recommend you going to hear him talk if he is ever in your area. He was not only a great speaker but also just a great down-to-earth guy who I enjoyed meeting. After his speech he came over to talk and take pictures with us raisers. He even took Africa's harness off so we could say hi to her. She was a sweet girl and I enjoyed getting to pet her. By time we got home it was 10pm we had been there for 4 hours. It was a great event and i'm so happy I got to go.

Pinnacle and I with Michael Hingson and his guide Africa