Translated material
"My bright spot"
What is vision? Often this means spending the rest of your life in four walls, occasionally getting out somewhere with loved ones and friends. Julia managed to achieve another life for himself. After all, now there is a world that leads it forward
Help dog helpers of disabled help helpIt seems that not only me, but my dog was waiting for a meeting with the heroines of this text. The thing is that my labrador Margo is a pupil of the educational and cinological center (UKC) “Dogs-Assistants of the Disabled”, a future guide. We are going to visit - then in Moscow it was still possible to freely move around the city - to the visually impaired Julia and the graduate of the same center, the dog of the world.
Life to the world
“I do not know how to explain, [as I see my right eye]. You can compare with the picture in Rasfokus: you see that there is lighter, darker there. For example, I see a person when he is already approaching, ”says Julia.
I won’t say right away from the girl that she is visually impaired: when we just went into the apartment, I even thought that I was mistaken in a hero. We are sitting in the kitchen and drinking tea, and happy labradors are worn around the apartment, now and then looking into the kitchen to gleam water. Two cats hid on the windowsill. Occasionally, I hear their displeased hiss.
Julia photo: Stanislav Novgorodtseva for TD 
“Now summer will begin, and everyone will drive on all sorts of great, scooters and other wheels that are invented now,” says my interlocutor. “When they rush next to me, I shudder all, it is so unexpected.”
For the first time, she was diagnosed with “uveit”, inflammation of the vascular shell of the eye, at the age of 10. Then the eyes were treated and the girl was completely returned to visual acuity. The disease came again - and no longer retreated - when Julia was 19 years old. At 22, the girl already had a third disability group, in 23 - the second. Vision on the right eye is not completely lost: to support it, Julia visits different procedures several times a year.
The period before the world of the world appeared in Julia’s life, the girl describes such words as “depression” and “helplessness”. It was difficult for her to leave the house, it is difficult to go to the store, it is difficult to force yourself to meet friends.
“I was only 20 years old then-this is such an age that I want to somehow actively lead my life,” recalls Julia.
Julia and Peace Photo: Stanislav Novgorodtsev for TDAt that time, she studied at the faculty of the Faculty of College. Vision began to fall precisely by the end of his studies, and the girl realized that she would not pull the work in the specialty. But Julia studied to the end and even received a red diploma. Then she worked for a year and a half in the dental clinic, where she was engaged in sterilization of tools, and after she began to study at the medical and surgical center on the masseur.
When a girl alone had to get out somewhere on business, it was not easy. Residents of the metropolis do not always pay attention to the awkward movements of a person who may need help in finding a road. Her husband Andrei, whom Julia met after loss of vision, was worried every time she needed to go somewhere alone.
And I often had to leave the house: Julia continued to work in different places even after a partial loss of vision. Now, in addition to working as a masseur, she publishes educational articles on medical topics. Also recently, with her familiar pediatrician, she created a telegram-boot @sivolobot, who positions herself as a medical assistant for parents.
“They say that medicine is a vocation, here it is. At four, my mother gave me the book “Grow Healthy”, and I started reading it, watch pictures. I had a table book. And all. This determined my fate, ”recalls Julia.
Cutlet and casper
Animals in Julia have always been. Now, in addition to worlds, two cats, cutlets and casper live with her. They appeared to the dog, and of course it was difficult to get used to another four -legged. Now they can even sleep with Mira on her litter.
Casper and cutlet photo: Stanislav Novgorodtsev for TD“For me, the house is not a house without animals,” says the girl. - When you come home and nobody is empty. I need someone to meet me, lie down, hugged, talked. Here the cat lay down on your knees, and it’s warm and good for you. You got sick, he came to you as well: “Do not be sad, I am with you.”
He and her husband thought about a dog for a long time - Andrei loved these animals since the time of service on the border, but Julia, according to him, had previously been afraid of them and tried to bypass them. But the girl decided to overcome her fear and learn more, joined the community of owners of Labradors on Facebook, began to go to shelters - feed, look closely, get used to.
Once in this group, Julia wrote a female trainer from the educational and cinological center and asked why she did not want to take a guide dog in the center. Julia began to refuse: she was uncomfortable to take a guide when her vision was not completely lost, because others needed it! But she was persuaded.
Cutlet and world photo: Stanislav Novgorodtsev for TD“I thought: really, enough to be shy, my vision is still not endless, as it will be next-it is also incomprehensible. I’ll write all the same. ”
Six months later, a trainer coach came to the girl to look at the conditions in which the young family lives and meet Julia. The queue for receiving a dog was supposed to be approached already in 2020.
A little sticky girl
“In November, they write to us:“ Yul, come. Come. We have a small sticky girl for you, ”the girl recalls.
Mira photo: Stanislav Novgorodtsev for TDIn two weeks, on the basis of the UKC in Balashikha, the girl had to get used to a dog named the world: to find out how to handle her, understand the character, and learn the teams. This time was divided into two parts: theoretical lectures and practical classes at a general training rate. With Julia, there were three more people on the base with features of vision, they also learned to live and cooperate with their new guides. Two weeks later, the world passed the final exams and went home.
“I believe that we are perfectly approaching each other with Mira. Our life is in full swing, we have come together with her, ”says Julia. She calls the dog herself “a bright spot in life”, this is how the girl sees her guide.
Julia always considered herself an introvert, but after the appearance of the world, her life changed.
“We have the whole park of acquaintances, in the society of blind people to see us, acquaintances appeared among the owners of guide dogs. I don’t know, I have a circle of dating thanks to the world immediately jumped for 300 people! ” - the girl rejoices.
Mira photo: Stanislav Novgorodtsev for TD 
To accustom the world to the new route, Andrei accompanied them with Julia at first. They remembered: here is a pharmacy, mail, store, metro, stop. Usually, the final results are visible only after three to six months, before that the dog usually gets used to a new place of residence, but a sticky girl remembers the road almost the first time, says Julia.
“When I go with Mira to the post office, I can calmly close my eyes and go without problems. She helps me a lot to say - to relax and go freely. No need to concentrate, think whether there is a step or not. You can do some kind of work with effort, or you can delegate part of some of your functions to the dog. And relax, and trust, and enjoy life. ”
Glad to the world, of course, Andrei: the life of his wife has changed significantly, she began to go out more often, act more on her own.
Mira photo: Stanislav Novgorodtsev for TD“This is not a dog already - this is life. Where are we now without her? We have only four months, but I will not give it to anyone, ”Andrei says confidently.
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Julia gives the team: “peace, metro”, and the dog follows the course. My Margo wants to play with her, but the guide is not distracted. He stops in front of each border so that the hostess can navigate: suddenly a car nearby. We approach the subway and say goodbye. They looked a little into the future: I hope that in a year the same text will write about Margot.
Julia and Peace Photo: Stanislav Novgorodtsev for TDNow my pupil is eight months, and after four she, just like the world, will go to the UCC base in Balashikha, where she will be taught all the wisdom of the guide work. I can’t even imagine what it would be for me to part with her, but the meeting with Julia showed how important the future awaits this dog. For me now, she is just a white bear cub, which so far ridiculously performs the “Bunny” command and runs behind the leaves in the wind, but in the future she can become a person through the eyes and will help to gain independence. The program does not prohibit volunteers with contact with grown puppies, and I am sure that with my "light spot" we will see each other more than once.
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A month after our conversation in Moscow, they introduced the self -isolation regime. Dog owners are allowed to walk them only 100 meters from the house. Julia is worried that during this month of the world he will lose all his “Resodrine” skills.
“During our studies, we were warned in Balashikha that a guide dog should work regularly to maintain his skills. One of the owners of such a dog told us that if the dog “stands idle” for more than two months, then it forgets everything that it was taught, so we need regular practice. ”
Mira photo: Stanislav Novgorodtsev for TDDirector of the UKC Elena Orochko said that it is not worth worrying and those guide dogs who are already in work will not lose their skills in such a short time.
“You can tolerate a little, it's not scary. People will still go to the store at least once a week, and with them the dog along the route. The fact that they can go outside with a dog, and not ask one of the people to leave them is even more correct. Another problem for our center is that we have stopped the activity of the preparation of guide dogs and the transfer of those that have already been prepared. We had to change our work a little: who were able to from our trainers, they took the dogs to their home and try to deal with them. ”
Elongest and visually impaired people get dogs for free, and the center “Dog - Assistants of Disabled” exists partially at the expense of the state subsidy, and partly thanks to private donations.
Please support the Center for Dog-Assistants of the Disabled, and together we will be able to change their attitude towards guide dogs, make the lives of blind people better and more interesting, and our world is a little kinder.
We talk about various funds that work and help in Moscow, but Moscow experience can be useful and used in other regions of the country.