A new day for guide dogs and their owners

From our sister paper down in Westchester comes an article about a graduation ceremony.

Noreen O'Donnell of the Journal News wrote about Guiding Eyes for the Blind in Yorktown Heights ceremony Saturday that had 11 people receiving new guide dogs.

They came from across the United States and as far as Sao Paulo, Brazil, to which Rodrigo Galvao, a 32-year-old lawyer, will return with one of only 60 guide dogs in that country. He has already had several canes broken in the bustle of Sao Paulo, he said.

Like other graduations, this one featured well-wishers and speeches and whoops and cheers. But these graduates came paired with their dogs, whose noses stuck out from under the seats. And in the audience were the volunteers who had raised and trained the dogs as puppies, couples such as Mike and Raina Napolitano of West Warwick, R.I.

The Napolitanos took in a dog named Orion who was going to Oakland, Calif., lawyer Michael Moore.

Moore aptly described the difference between using a cane and having a guide dog.

"It's the difference between riding a bike and flying," he said. "The cane is like a bicycle. You feel every bump. And with a dog you don't feel that. I also tell people with a cane, you have to find the obstacle, figure out what it is. And with a dog, you just avoid the obstacle entirely."

Congratulations to the new recipients of the guide dogs, and thanks to volunteers who cared for them.