Shadow Read Online Free Page B

Then they trained
me
how to work with a dog!” She smiled. “Finally, Simba and I were matched up and we graduated together.”
    Next, Mrs. Abeson called on Daniel. “Does he live in the house with you?” Daniel asked.
    â€œOh, yes,” said Mrs. Santiago. “He’s with me all the time. But he’s more than a pet. He’s a working dog. And to answer another question I heard before, you should not pat a guide dog when he’s working. It can distract him.” She leaned down to pat Simba. “But he gets plenty of affection. And if he’s not working, and if you ask first, a guide dog’s owner might give you permission to pat him.”
    Mrs. Santiago told them all kinds of interestingthings about working with a guide dog. Like, she said that Simba did not necessarily know which way to go until she told him. So it was up to her to know when to turn right or left. But Simba
did
know how to help her cross a street safely. “If he sees danger, he won’t let me cross even if I have given the signal to go,” she said.
    â€œWhat if you want to go to a restaurant?” Caroline asked, without even raising her hand. “Can he go with you?”
    Mrs. Santiago nodded. “It’s the law. Guide dogs can go anywhere. Simba goes to the post office with me, to stores, to the bank, and to restaurants. He knows how to behave no matter where he is.” She smiled down at her dog. “Right, Simba?”
    Simba’s tail thumped on the floor.
    Lizzie loved every minute of Mrs. Santiago’s visit. She learned more about guide dogs than she had ever known before, and she even got to try out walking with Simba, holding on to his harness.
    At lunchtime, Lizzie asked Maria to sit with her. “Simba is amazing!” she said.
    â€œI know,” Maria said. “He makes life so much easier for my mom. He’s a real hero.”
    That was when Lizzie had the best idea ever.

“Shadow could be a guide dog for a blind person!” Lizzie told Charles. They were in Lizzie’s room, after school. “I told Maria my idea, and she agrees that he’d be perfect for the job. Think about it!” She reminded Charles of the way Shadow took care of the Bean. “Plus,” Lizzie said, “we could be his puppy-raisers. That way we could keep Shadow for a whole year!”
    Lizzie explained to Charles what Maria had told her about puppy-raisers and how they were responsible for helping guide dog puppies grow up healthy. They have to teach the puppies about all kinds of places and people so they will be prepared to deal with anything when they are working with a blind person. That means puppy-raiserstake their puppies with them to school, to work, to stores, on elevators — everywhere!
    Charles had Shadow on his lap. He was stroking the puppy’s head. Shadow looked up at him, wrinkling his little forehead as if he were trying hard to understand what Charles and Lizzie were talking about.
    Shadow kept hearing his name. He knew the boy and girl were talking about him. They sounded excited. That must mean something good was going to happen!
    â€œWow,” said Charles. He was quiet for a moment. “It sounds like fun. But then — after a year, what happens?”
    â€œWell, then we give him to the training center and they teach him how to be a guide dog, and then he gets matched up with a blind person.” Lizzie had talked some more with Maria about how the whole system worked.
    â€œSo — after a whole year, we’d have to give him up?” Charles asked. He hugged Shadow, burying his face in the puppy’s neck. “I don’t know about that.”
    â€œIt would be hard,” Lizzie admitted. When she thought about it, she didn’t know how she could do it. If she loved Shadow this much after only a few days, how could she stand letting him go after a year? “Sometimes the puppies don’t work out as