Faimon adjusts to life with a guide dog
BY ARGENIS VILLA / Lincoln Journal Star
James Faimon has been blind all his life. But having a guide dog was new to him.
Which explains why, a few weeks ago, he thought he’d lost Murphy — and the $38,000 spent pairing him with the 2-year-old yellow Lab.
Faimon and Murphy were on a walk when he bent down to clean up after the dog.
Without realizing it, Faimon let go of Murphy’s leash.
Oops, he thought.
Still, he remained calm and called after Murphy.
No response.
He called again.
Nothing.
Faimon stood there, wondering what had happened to the dog, when a man asked him if he needed help.
Faimon asked the man to help him find his dog.
“He’s been sitting right beside you all along,” the man said.
“I’m still learning how to command him,” said Faimon, 70.
He hadn’t gotten a dog before because he thought it would be a distraction at work, he said.
“With all the people coming in and out of the office, I thought it wouldn’t be such a good idea to have a dog,” said Faimon, who retired last year as an assistant city attorney.
He got Murphy in October from the Leader Dogs for the Blind school in Rochester, Mich.
The school provides free guide dogs to qualified recipients. It also pays for travel and 26 days of training at the school. The estimated value is $38,000.
Faimon’s wife, Bonnie, enjoys watching the interaction between Murphy and her husband.
“Jim bathes, brushes his teeth and feeds him,” she said. “You can really tell that Murphy loves Jim very much.”
Murphy is trained to obey commands whenever he’s wearing his harness, James Faimon said.
“He gets to be a regular dog whenever he doesn’t have his harness on,” said Bonnie Faimon.
When the harness is off, Murphy likes to run in the backyard, James Faimon said, and he likes to eat snow.
“It’s like his ice cream.”
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