A nice surprise

On Friday night at work, my phone rang around 10 p.m. I glanced at the caller ID, figuring it was Bob, wanting to know when I was coming home (since I was supposed to be working days and had gone in at 9 a.m. ... but that's a whole other story.)

It was an out-of-state area code, so I picked it up.

"You don't know me, but my name's David and I just got my first guide dog," the caller said.

David lives in Connecticut. His neighbor had been in Maine visiting relatives when my article about raising Murphy ran, and he brought it back to show him.

David told me about how he'd begun having issues with falling, but how Anna, his new black Lab guide dog, was really changing his life. He said that when he read my story, he felt he had to call and tell me how much raisers matter, how grateful he was for how Anna is helping him.

It was a really wonderful and unexpected joy to talk with him. I told him a few more stories about Murphy; he wondered if I was going to raise again, since I wasn't sure when I wrote the article. I was thrilled to be able to tell him that yes, we were.

I really hope that Murphy can mean as much to someone as Anna clearly means to him already.