Paws Then Play

03/29/2024

The more you know:

03/14/2024

Can anyone relate? 😂🫠

02/09/2024

Let’s get ‘er done!

12/07/2023

PSA- please try your remember that service dog handlers are people too. We have feelings and legal rights, and need our dogs to perform a lot of basic life functions. 🥰

12/01/2023

That moment you realize you may have accidentally taught your dog that duct tape is the answer to all of life’s problems 🤦🏻‍♀️.

Image description: a medium coat black and tan German shepherd dog sits with ears up attentively holding a roll of duct tape in his mouth. The duct tape has small yellow chicks on it.

11/27/2023

💞

yaaay

10/26/2023

Incredible 🤩

Anita Blair was the first guide dog handler in El Paso, Texas, when she graduated from The Seeing Eye in March 1940 with Fawn, a German shepherd. The photo is a black and white photo of Anita being guided by Fawn across a bustling city street in the early 1940s.

Just a month later, Anita and Fawn were crossing a street in El Paso when a car nearly hit her. “Fawn, the fawn-colored German shepherd, with perfect timing checked her mistress’s pace, so that the car sped past without the driver being aware that the young woman could not see,” the El Paso Times reported on April 19, 1940.

Fawn was at her side when she graduated from the Texas College of Mines and Metallurgy – now known as the University of Texas at El Paso, or UTEP – with a bachelor’s degree in 1944. She later earned a master’s degree from Texas State College for Women, now Texas Woman’s University, in Denton.

In 1946, Anita and Fawn were again in the news during a tragic fire at the 23-story Hotel LaSalle in Chicago. According to the June 6, 1946, issue of the El Paso Times, Anita was awakened by screams. “When I opened the door the smoke was so heavy I could taste it,” Anita told the newspaper. “I closed the door but did not want to get Fawn excited. Because of her I remained calm – and probably because of me she did the same.”

Fawn led Anita out the window and down the fire escape – 11 stories down – while the fire raged. Sixty-one people were killed in the fire.

In 1952, Anita became the first El Paso woman – and the first blind woman in any state – to be elected as a state representative. During her time in office, Anita fought for funding for the State School for the Deaf, teacher pay raises, and a bill that allowed women to serve on juries.

Anita returned to The Seeing Eye five more times to be matched with successor Seeing Eye dogs. Her last was Beryl, a black Labrador retriever, in 1990. Anita died in 2010 at the age of 93, and in recognition of her service as a state legislator, is buried in the Texas State Cemetery in Austin.

08/15/2023

😊

Most people think that holding your hand out for a dog to smell is the right way to meet a dog, but here's a better way.

07/05/2023

If you love the Christmas pig enough, it can survive 🤓

07/02/2023

Every day is a great day to roll around on the grass 😜