Seeing eye dogs, eyes, and balloons

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It's not every day that you see a guide dog; but today I saw TWO.
This beautiful mature one stayed quietly at its master's feet in the Wilhelmina Auditorium from 9:00  to 2:30.

Beer Sheva's Soroka Hospital gave a study day about various eye problems and treatments.
How the dog sat through all those lectures I don't know.
Poor thing was too low to even see the slides on the screen.

One of the talks included videos of eye surgery, including sticking needles into the eye.
Oi, not for the faint of heart!  But amazing what the surgeons can do to save vision.

Comic relief came unintentionally, haha!
At the end of the day the Eye Department balloon decorations had somehow gravitated to the EXIT stairwell and the old folks were trying to climb through them.

Then at my bus stop a sweet younger dog was waiting for the bus.
Her jacket says she is a guide dog for the blind puppy in training.

The bus stop is right outside Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
Many students there volunteer to take such puppies into their homes for a year and go everywhere with them in order to socialize them.

You can see how the Israel Guide Dog Center for the Blind works in my earlier post.
And this post shows some playful puppies at our President's open house.
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(Linking to Our World Tuesday and Camera Critters.)
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Playful puppies at President Peres' place

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Animal pictures for Camera-Critters were the last thing I expected to capture at the Sukkot public reception at the President's house.
But there they were, three dogs.
When they saw each other, they started straining at the leash and finally jumped all over one another in joy.

They will have to learn to be more restrained.
Their jackets say they are "guide dog puppies in training."
And the young man's shirt says "Israel Guide Dog Center for the Blind."

Many university students volunteer to be foster parents for the puppies' initial socialization.

Please see an earlier post where I described the breeding and training of these Hebrew-"speaking" guide dogs (bless their heart).
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This post's title will be good for ABC Wednesday's P day.
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Bo! Shev!

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Please click to enlarge the photo

I felt so fortunate to be able to see this van waiting at a red light in Jerusalem.

And as luck would have it, the next day an article about the Israel Guide Dog Center for the Blind appeared in the Jerusalem Post and I learned more.
The dedicated folks at the IGDC breed the dogs. They raise the puppies--Labradors, golden retrievers, or half-Lab, half-golden mixes--for the first eight weeks.
Then the pups are placed in foster homes for a year of socialization.
For example, some 25 students at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev are enthusiastic foster care givers.
The dogs then return to the Center for training.

It is funded by donations; government ministries pay only 10%.
Of the estimated 23,000 blind people in Israel only a relatively few will receive a free guide dog from the Center. The dogs understand Hebrew commands.
If a blind person goes abroad to get a guide dog, he must be proficient in English because his own training is in English and that is the only language the dogs know.

This photo is from the Israel Guide Dog Center's sweet blog, http://www.mitzvahdog.blogspot.com/.

It really is a mitzvah to enrich the lives of blind people with such canine companions!

For more information, the website of the IGDC is here.
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P.S. To see a jackal with a pretty face please see my mid-week post.
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Other animals from other bloggers will be appearing at the weekend Camera-Critters meme.