Chance in a Lifetime

By Jennifer Shenefield

He was her eyes, guiding her through the darkness and always at her side. She showed him the light of compassion, life, and love. The bond they shared together was beautiful and unbreakable. Then one day, everything changed. In only his third year as a guide dog, the world overturned for Chance. He came face-to-face with one of the most difficult struggles in life. His routine and his heart broken, Chance needs to find the strength and the will to move forward beyond the pain to what is next in life. He will journey to fulfill his destiny while discovering the rest of the human world and who he is in the process. In his new phase of life, Chance is partnered with a special young boy named Ethan, who teaches him new levels of understanding, happiness, and strength. The way this new understanding shapes Chance enables this very unique dog to touch the lives of others around him in times of both joy and sorrow. Everything is truly tested when what Chance loves and what he fears collide in a crucial decision-which must be made within a split second. In Chance in a Lifetime, the story of a guide dog's journey unravels through his own eyes, the same eyes that see for those who cannot see themselves. Through his unique perspective, readers discover the good in animals and people alike, and the beauty of the bonds between them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jun 13, 2019
• ISBN: 9781644714652

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Chance in a Lifetime

A Novel

Jennifer Shenefield

ISBN 978-1-64471-464-5 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64471-465-2 (Digital)

Copyright © 2019 Jennifer Shenefield

All rights reserved

First Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Covenant Books, Inc.

11661 Hwy 707

Murrells Inlet, SC 29576

www.covenantbooks.com

Table of Contents

Discovery

Preparation

Connection

Comfort

Compassion

Loss

Coping

Remembrance

Transition

Pride

Realization

Renewal

Adventure

Courage

Love

Recovery

Strength

Tranquility

About the Author

With love for my children, who always inspire my inner strength, my valuable drive, and my incessant sense of curiosity

and

For all the animals I have been so privileged to be owned by, whose love and loyalty have inspired the beauty this book describes.

1

Discovery

It is possible to see everything, even when you cannot see anything at all. I spent my first days of life in an exploration of darkness. Opening my eyes brought me the world around to encounter, with all that was in sight. But it was not until I had experienced more of this world that I came to understand the true meaning of all that may be seen in this amazing journey humans call life, with or without the benefit of sight itself.

My very first memories of those new, dark days are rather silly, really. There was a foot squishing in my face. I stretched my little self out, and this tiny squeaky noise came out of me. The foot was my brother’s, and when I pushed out my own curious little paw, it bounced off his round belly. That felt funny, so I did it again. It was soft. And very bouncy.

So many senses and things felt warm to me. Touching and feeling were really all I had, blind to even the knowledge that there was a world to see with eyes. The round bodies of my brothers and sisters were warm; my mother’s belly where I would rest my head and drink warm milk was quite comforting too. It was even warm to move around to get from the milk to other little distances, since in order to move I had to wiggle and roll myself in many directions, pressing myself against warm, soft bedding or warm, soft brothers and sisters.

And then there was the first contact with humans. In the time of new darkness, there were only hands, and so at that time I thought that was all humans were. Gentle hands would stroke my chin, rub my back, and grip me around my belly if I needed to be moved somewhere. It was all such a very simple, warm, and comforting life for a little puppy. At that time, I had no idea what very important job I was destined for. I was experiencing only a piece of that world.

I really was not prepared for the excitement of the first moment that my eyes opened. The tiny doors in front of those eyes opened slowly, revealing little rays of light at a time, more and more as they opened further and drove the darkness away. The light itself was so bright. But when there was not darkness, there was so much to see. Things. All of the things I could only feel before and things that I never knew were there. There was so much to see with these new eyes that I had. I looked here and there, then back again. My mother looked like my brothers and sisters, but bigger. They all had paws and tails and little tongues. There were soft blankets everywhere. We were in a room, and there was a big glass wall on one side. There were little things in there that could be chewed on. So much. How amazing it was to see! I had to get out and explore with this sight. I got up quickly, determined to make it to the other side of the room and make discoveries. I did not get far before I clumsily fell forward flat on my face, then rolled to my side. Oh no. I could see now, but I still had to work on this walking thing.

Soon after I had started walking around without falling as much, I came to notice another person who was coming to see us. I found it strange that she came to the big glass, but she never came inside. She always had on the same jacket each time, and her hair was pulled away from her face. When she came, there was a board of some kind in her hand, and it had paper on it, as some of the other puppy people had with them when they came in. She had the same writing stick too. The first few times she came, I did not pay much attention, since there were other things to do and play with. But now I was growing up, and my curiosity was growing too. I wanted to know what she was doing.

The next time she appeared at the glass, I planted myself pretty close to the glass, but not right in front of her. And I paid attention. She flipped the papers on her board a few times, using the writing stick on a couple of them quickly. When she looked up, she looked all over the puppy room. She appeared to be taking a peek at each one of us. She would look at one of the other pups, use the writing stick on the paper, then look at another one and do the same thing. Although I did not know what she was doing or why she had the board, I was fascinated by whatever she was doing.

And then it was time for her to look at the last pup—me. That time when she turned to me from behind that glass, I was staring right back at her. She looked startled for a moment, as I get with a loud noise sometimes. Then she slowly smiled at me. We did only that for a bit. She stared at me. I stared at her. Then she had to use the writing stick on her paper. I thought maybe she was writing something about me. I watched the stick move up and down, to one side, again. It was very interesting, and this was the first time I really noticed pattern, and the movement of something. I felt a need to touch it, a need even to do it myself too if that was possible. So I picked myself up and waddled toward the glass—and the lady with the writing stick.

She looked at me again with that startled look and stopped writing just to watch me as I came up to her. The glass was a hard thing to understand once I got there, and I went too far, bumping my nose into it. That knocked me down a bit, but I got back up. She lifted the stick again to use it, but then paused it in midair when I lifted my little paw and pressed it against the glass. I wanted to try the stick.

Again she stared at me. Her eyebrows came together in a strange look, but then that little smile came to her face again. It got bigger as I pawed at the glass wall, trying to reach that stick. The lady’s smile got bigger. She crouched down in front of me so that she was almost at my level. Her eyes looked into mine, and the stick was still being held in the air. She moved it one way. I followed it with my paw. She moved it another way. I followed it again. But I still could not get it.

Then she took it and tapped it to the glass. It made a soft clanking sound when it hit the glass, and now it was closer to me. I tapped the glass in the same place. She tapped it two times, then one after the other. I could do that too, so I did the same thing. This was becoming fun, and I was enjoying it. Three times. Tap. Tap. Tap. The lady seemed very happy then, especially after I was able to follow her three-time pattern as well. It was not very hard. I liked the idea of following. And I loved the way she seemed to be pleased with what I was doing.

She started to write with the stick very quickly now on her board. It was far too fast for me to follow it exactly, but I did try. I traced my paw back and forth on the glass, watching the stick closely as it moved. She quickly glanced up a couple times to see what I was doing, but she never stopped writing. I kept moving and tapping with my paw.

Then she stopped writing. I put down my paw too. It was getting a little tired. But how much fun that all was! She looked at me after having set the pen down, and her mouth opened to say something to me. She said it loudly enough that I could hear her through the glass, Good puppy. Very, very good puppy.

As time went on, I was excited to see myself growing bigger and getting stronger. The puppy people started taking us out of the puppy room for exercise and playtime in big rooms with more toys and things to climb on and run between. I liked to make each one of them a new challenge every time, and I tackled them with all of my might. Sometimes the puppy people would look at me and talk to each other as they watched me. This gave me a new idea—to listen to what they were saying. And was I ever glad I decided to do that. There was so much that could be learned from listening to humans talking. As I paid more and more attention, I also realized how confusing it all could be too, as I tried to sort things out and understand them. This was an entirely different kind of puzzle. But there was nothing in my new world that I was not curious about.

It is truly amazing. I haven’t ever seen a pup quite like him. What’s more, Heather said she hasn’t either. She’s hopeful that this line will produce more prodigies. She wants us to continue to make notes on him. The shorter people person was saying this to the taller people person in the dark shirt.

I agree. A problem solver emerging at this early age is highly unusual. The tall people person bent down to pet one of my lighter-shade siblings, but looked over at me as she did it. Heather is bringing the puppy-raisers next week, right? She was now asking this to the shorter person. These pups are all progressing nicely and are ready to start training. It should be a breeze for the chocolate boy. She looked right at me with a smile as she said it. Because she did that, I decided it was okay to let her know I was watching. I looked right back at her, sat in a very cute pose, and gave her a happy pant. People seemed to really enjoy puppy cuteness.

It worked. She laughed and her smile got bigger as she nudged the other people person and said something to her that I could not hear. Or maybe I was just lost in thought, trying to figure out what chocolate was. She had called me chocolate. I knew already that I was a boy, since they often called me that: here, boy, good boy, no, boy, and other similar things. But the chocolate was new. I would have to find out.

With time and a little more understanding and figuring out of the human conversations, I was able to learn a few more things over the next several days. The short people person was called Megan, and the tall people person was called Trisha. We were no longer supposed to go potty on any of the papers, only on this softish, scratchyish stuff called grass in the area where they took us for potty times. Some of my siblings were called black, and some were called yellow. They were like my mother, because she was also called yellow. I heard no others called chocolate, so perhaps that meant I was the only one. Black was the darker shade, yellow was the lighter shade, and mine—chocolate—seemed to be in the middle, from what I could tell.

The biggest thing I learned is that we were all going to be leaving this place very soon. We were to start something called puppy-raiser basic training. From what I could tell, we were each going to new homes to learn things. A part of me was a little scared to leave all that I had come to know. I did not know what it would be like in this other place. Another part of me, though, was very excited to be venturing out into a new life and learning new things. Of course, I would later come to learn that this situation is called change. And this was to be the very first big change I would experience.

When that puppy-raiser day did come, we all had a full bath in the middle of the day, before we were taken to the exercise playroom. I knew then that something different would be happening that day. The playroom also had a big glass wall, like the puppy room did. When we got into the playroom, I could see many people on the other side of that glass. There were people there I had not seen before, so this had to be the day we went with them, the puppy-raisers. My tummy did a little flip feeling. I scanned them all, wondering which one or ones would be mine. There was someone else there too whom I recognized. The lady from behind the glass that came to watch us and write about us was there. She still had her board, and she was talking to all of the others while pointing toward us behind the glass.

Someone picked me up and lifted me from the ground. I turned to look and saw that it was Trisha. She gave me a gentle kiss on the forehead. I’m going to miss you, little chocolate boy. My tongue came out without thinking, and I licked her. I would miss her too. It was a little sad that I would not see her anymore. She had been the main human hands to care for me since I had come into this world.

The door behind us opened up, and Trisha set me down gently. The lady from behind the glass came in, followed by a few of the people she had been talking to. Turning to Trisha, she said, Let’s take yellow, orange, dark blue, and green first. I still did not really understand why they called us by those words, but somehow it helped Trisha and Megan to know which one of us was which. I’m going to give them some intro time in the other rooms, and they can choose their names at that point too.

Trisha nodded, and Megan came from the other side of the room to help her round up pups. I knew they were not coming for me yet since, besides calling me chocolate, they sometimes called me red. So I sat down to watch as excited puppy bodies wiggled in their arms and then were placed into new arms—the puppy-raisers’ arms. It was rather amazing to watch. People smiled so brightly, petted and cuddled the pups. They seemed as excited to see them as we were to have all of the attention they offered. My tail was wagging now. I really wanted my turn.

Trisha spoke to the lady with the board: Heather, I’ll get the welcome kits ready while you place them in their rooms.

Her name was Heather. Ah, I had not known that before.

Sounds great. Thank you. I’ll be right back for light blue and red. Heather paused. That one will be a little tough to let go of. She winked at Trisha as she walked out the door behind all of the families and my brothers and sisters.

Trisha looked at me. Yep. That was all she said. Then she and Megan went over to a table and started packing up some bags with books, toys, bowls, and things like that. I looked over at the other pup left in the playroom. He was a chubby little one. He was one shade darker, so he was black. He was very busy towing a blanket toward one of the play tunnels. I decided to get a little more playing-in too, and I grabbed a rope bone to sink my teeth into over and over again. I gripped it hard with my little teeth, and shook it faster and faster until I made myself topple over. Then I rolled on my back and pawed at it there for a while. Sometimes the simple life was just plain fun.

It was not long before Heather returned with her board, along with four people. There were two men and two ladies. They were all different kinds, but all of them were smiling and looked very friendly. Megan and Trisha went over to them and shook their hands.

Then my own attention was captured by a slight whining sound. Where was that coming from? It was so faint, but I had to try to find it. I followed it to the other side of the room, and now I was hearing tiny little yipping noises. They were coming from the play tunnel. Could it be…?

I started to run now. My heart was beating very fast. My brother could be in trouble! I had to do something. I barked my silly, sharp little bark and then ran to the opening of the tunnel. When I peered in, all I could see was his wet little nose and his eyes, which were huge. The rest of him was covered by the blanket, which was also stuck in there with him. He was whining. He was feeling bad, and he looked very scared and startled.

I had to help him. I immediately crawled into the tunnel. Once my teeth were close enough, I gripped a piece of the blanket and pulled. At first it did not move. I fell back a little and lost my grip. My brother cried again. No. I was going to get it. I had to try again.

With a low growl of my own, I lunged back at the blanket and gripped it as hard as I could. Then I pulled with all my strength. I felt it coming with me this time. Yes! I walked backward in the tunnel, pulling it with me. Finally I had it free. My brother stopped whining, and I saw that he could move again. But he did not seem to want to move. His eyes were still big, and he looked at me with that same scared look. I knew what I had to do. Shoving him the other way, I pushed him until we were both out the other side of the tunnel.

He rolled in a little ball across the floor. I was so happy to see him jump up then and wag his tail. He was okay. I ran to him and playfully batted at him with my paw. He licked me and then bit at my ear. He was okay. We were so happy together in that moment that we barely noticed all the shadows that were standing over us.

Then I heard them all saying things at once, and the hands of a lady scooped up my brother. She held him and cuddled him tightly to her, whispering to him that he was okay and that he was so cute. The man there with her put his hand on her shoulder and scratched the pup’s ear. I was so glad he was okay.

Then hands grabbed me gently. I expected them to be my new puppy-raisers, but when I looked, it was Heather’s arms I was in. She looked me directly in my eyes. All I could do was blink a little and lick my lips a couple of times. Her smile went from one side of her face to the other. And then she spoke. Not to the others in the room, but to me.

You are amazing; do you know that?

I was not sure how I could answer her, so I just wiggled my bottom happily a little in her arms. She turned to the man and lady, both of whom had dark hair and were also looking at me and smiling. This one is especially perceptive. We haven’t seen this very often at all; he’s really special.

Oh, we can certainly see that. We feel so lucky to be the ones chosen to start his training. It was the man who spoke, and he took the hand of the lady next to him as he said it. She nodded with excitement. They seemed very nice. I thought I was going to like them.

Heather held me up high, and again she spoke to me. You are going to make such a difference in someone’s life. You are going to give them the most amazing chance at a better life. And that will be your name—Chance.

Chance. I was Chance. I was chocolate. And I had a special purpose. I was going to help someone. What an amazing feeling that was. There was no stopping my happy tail now.

2

Preparation

It was going to hurt me. The shiny metal, mean face was coming far too close to me. My nose burned from its smoky stench. The wheels on it spun so fast, and I thought they would not stop until it had me. And the growling sound it made toward me… It was closing in, warning me of what it was about to do. I had to run. Now. Run!

My panic turned the attempted run into a clumsy leap backward, with my legs scrambling helplessly underneath me when they could not grip the curb to take flight. The stiff leather harness dug deeply into my shoulders as I backed into it and on it at the same time. But my eyes never left that thing until it was far past me. That car.

Tripping all over myself to get away had landed me half on the sidewalk and half in the street. I dared not look up at Josie in that moment. I did not often disappoint my trainer, but I had a very sinking feeling in my stomach that I had really done it this time.

Chance. Josie did not sound mad, but she did not sound very happy either. I still did not want to look up at her.

Chance, up. You’ve got to pick yourself up and keep going. Up. I listened to her immediately, as I knew I must do. I stood quickly but awkwardly from that precarious position, looking around as I did. The car was gone. I could no longer see it. My heart stopped pounding so hard, and the fear was melting away. A new feeling was taking over me. It was not a good one. Shame, maybe it could have been called. It was kind of a sickly feeling. And I was not proud of myself.

Only lifting my eyes to look at her halfway, I sat in front of Josie, awaiting her next instructions. She put both hands on my harness handle and bent down directly in front of me. Her eyes were not excited as they were when I was doing things really well. My bad feeling sunk deeper. I had to be better than this.

Boy, you have only a couple more months to get over this. I know you can do it, but you have got to do it soon. She scratched behind one of my ears lightly and turned her head a bit, as if to look at me more closely. It looks almost as if you are disappointed in yourself.

I whined slightly and involuntarily. Her eyes opened wider. Wow, you are…you really are. Josie gripped the skin on each side of my neck with each of her hands and looked me squarely in the face. Chance, if you can understand me—and maybe you really can—you have got to beat this. Beat the cars. Do not be scared of them. You have to overcome this to graduate and do what you were born to do.

I did understand. And I knew I had to do it. I wanted to be a guide dog. That was who I was, and I could do it. Trying was hard. But only with the cars. Everything else seemed so much easier. I did not know why those cars scared me so much…but I had to be stronger and not afraid anymore.

Okay, boy, that’s enough for today. Josie slipped off the training harness and clipped a lead onto my collar. Let’s go. She started to walk, and I immediately slipped into perfect heel position next to her and then matched her stride. I had to show her how good I was at that, at least.

When we walked back into the training center building, Josie led us to the resting area pens. It was time for both of us to have a break from training for a little while, and we dogs got to go into these nice little pens for resting. They had fresh water, a comfy bed to lie down on, even some chew bones to enjoy while we awaited our next lesson. They were also a good place for a nap when we were tired. Training was hard work, so sometimes those resting pens were a very welcome sight.

But today I was not as excited to go to one. I was wanting to go back out there and try again. I needed to get better with the cars; I really did. My own determination surprised me, but there was something inside me just telling me I had to get it right. I was telling me that…not only Josie anymore. And it was not just that. I was really missing the high squeaky voice Josie had when she praised me and when I was doing a good job. I had heard it so many times, and had come to crave it from all humans, even back from my early puppy training days. That happy, encouraging tone of voice meant everything to a dog in training. It made that dog feel very special and was reassurance for being a very good dog. Josie had used that tone with me many, many times. But we had not ended our training session this afternoon with it, and I was feeling a little empty inside because of that. The excitement from praise and the squeaky, happy tone of voice had taught me all throughout my training time how much I truly loved to please people, and how different I felt when I was not pleasing them.

When we reached the resting pen, Josie gave me a scratch on the head and opened the low door for me, which only reached about as high as her waist or so. She reached down and slipped off the training harness while telling me, You’re a good boy, Chance. You really are. We’ll keep working on it. She gave me one more scratch behind the ears before gesturing to me to go in the pen. I did as she wanted. When she started to swing the door closed, I heard her say something under her breath.

Perfect…everything perfect but the cars. Her head shook slightly.

I looked up at her at the same moment that she looked down at me while the door latched closed. Her eyes met mine.

You know, if you could just get past the cars, you may possibly be the best guide dog we have ever produced. Something about those words from her was very heavy. Very deep. It also swelled a new determination in me. More determination than ever. I would beat those metal monsters. I wanted to be the best. People who needed me out there were depending on it. They were depending on me. I could not disappoint them. I just still did not know how to do it.

After chewing on the bone for a while and gulping up a bunch of fresh water, I found myself finally feeling a little tired. I decided it was important to rest up in case Josie wanted me to try another run with the cars again today. I circled my bed once, twice, and then one more time just to be sure. Then I plopped down.

Josie had used that word, perfect, to describe the work I was doing in my training many times before, both to me and to other trainers at the center. Never with the cars, but for many other things. I had come to understand that it meant something even better than very good, so it was something I always wanted to be in my duties. I had come a long way in my training to get to this point, and I had learned so very much. I could tell from what I had heard that I was very close to graduation time. My training was almost complete now.

It had all started with my puppy-raiser family. They were called Annie and Carson, and they were very nice humans. They taught me all of the basic obedience things I needed to know, such as how to sit, stay, and walk in a perfect heel position on both a leash and a harness. I had learned from Josie that this obedience (really just being a very good dog and doing as your people ask you to) is very important. Josie always had called it the foundation for all of the more advanced training I was to have after that. Although I never really understood fully what that actually meant, I knew that because I was good at the obedience, it helped me be good at all of the harder stuff too.

Puppy training was an amazing experience for me, because I quickly learned there was a whole world outside of the puppy birthing center where I was born and grew up with my mother and brothers and sisters. Annie and Carson took me to so many different places—parks, buildings, schools, malls, the country, the city, restaurants, many homes, and even busy city centers. I saw many things that make up this world, as well as humans of all shapes, sizes, looks, ages, and shades. It was a wonderful experience to explore everything, and for a wide-eyed puppy who was supposed to be in training, it also meant the exposure to the hardest part of puppy training--learning to resist distractions.

That meant that, although there were so many amazing and wonderful things to do, people to meet, and things to eat, I had a job to do, and I had to have focus on that. Not an easy thing for a dog to do, I tell you. But I got better at it with time and that same determination to be very good at my job, even when I was little.

As a little puppy, I had also been confused by things I did not yet know about in the world. One day Annie had taken me to a big store full of animal supplies everywhere. There were also many other people there with dogs on leashes and harnesses walking around. It was a good opportunity for me to experience a lot of distractions all at once, Annie had told me. And it certainly was…there were dog food and biscuit smells everywhere, not to mention the many different smells of all of the other dogs in there. Ohhh, how I had wanted to sniff them all. I had wanted to chew holes in every bag in the food aisle to taste them all. I wanted to rip down each and every chew toy and sink my teeth into all of them. As hard as it was, I was not allowed to do any of those things…even though I did try. Back then, I was not the highly trained, incredibly obedient dog I am now. Not yet anyway.

I distinctly remember rounding the corner into an aisle full of leashes, collars, and harnesses. Near the end of the aisle was