Dog-gone wife!!
You might say that Tom Langan is ‘hard on dogs’. No! He is not a cruel task master; he has just lived a long time and is currently finishing his training with his fifth guide-dog – Trigger.
Tom had to go to Exeter, England for his first guide-dog Bianca in 1978 because there was no guide-dog association in Ireland at that time. Bianca was famous. He was the first guide-dog in Galway and he belonged to Tom Langan. Sure everyone knew Tom ‘the man with the dog’. Tom was very active at that time. He was a union rep for his workplace and was also a member of the new Irish Guide-Dog Association executive board which was setting up the first guide-dog centre in Ireland. So it was not unusual to frequently meet Tom and Bianca at the train station going to a meeting somewhere in the country. I first saw Bianca when I was studying for my leaving certificate. Tom lived in my local area and walked by my house on his way to work. The last time I saw Bianca was on T.V. at HIS retirement party in Twiggs nightclub in Salthill. RTE did a news report on it. Bianca retired to a house with children with disabilities.
Next was noble Harvey 1986. He and Tom were always together around town. I first met Harvey in 1981 when I approached Tom about joining the new Octopus Swimming Club for people with disabilities. Tom declined the invitation to join but I would always introduce myself after that, pat the dog’s head and be gone.
One time I met Tom at a play in the Druid Theatre Company Galway, called the Glass Menagerie and insisted on being his audio enhancement for the duration of the play. In 1988, while on a common committee, in Galway, for fundraising for the Paralympics in Korea, Tom and I got to know each other “better”. Tom was representing the visually impaired and I was representing the Irish Wheelchair Association Sport, paraplegics and amputees. At this time Halley was my family’s pet black dog (collie – retriever mix). A friend of mine commented that if the dogs had not become pals that Tom and I would never have got close enough to know each other. We married in 1992.
Harvey retired in 1994 and ended his days with my parents and Halley near where we live. Harvey died shortly before his 12th birthday.
Next came Benson, 1994, Tom’s ‘cleverest’ dog. You could see Benson thinking – his eyebrows went up and twitched up and down at different rates while he decided what he wanted to do. Tom was the master and ‘usually’ it was better to do what he wanted while on the harness – but on a free run Benson dictated!!! He would gallop like a race horse and return when it suited him. I loved Benson’s free spirit, we could communicate by just looking at each other. Benson retired 6months early because of a foot / paw complaint. He became our pet and only died last November 2005 aged thirteen and a half years.
In November 2003 Errol joined the family. He was a soft gentle soul. He worked well for two years. It was lovely to see Tom working Errol. Where Tom had to be dominant over Benson to get the best out of him the opposite was true of Errol. If Tom got tough Errol stopped and sat still out of confusion!! So Tom would have to stop and gently coax and praise him to get going again. Tom liked Errol’s pace and good quality work. My mother called Errol ‘Baby’ because he was so gentle and loving.
Errol got a sore knee in sping 2005 and went to the IGDA (Irish Guide-Dog Association) in Cork for specialist treatment. The problem turned out to be an aggressive tumour and poor Errol died peacefully in September 2005. He had been looked after by Anne-Marie (Kennel staff IGDA) for the previous 6 months at the centre. – Thank you Anne-Marie for your superb care and love to Errol.
For the first time I had to learn to live with Tom on his own (dog-less) but we survived.
Guess what!!!??
I have just spent the last couple of days in Cork where Tom and ‘Trigger’, Tom’s 5th guide-dog, are finishing their training. Now I do not know an awful lot about reincarnation and I do not even know if is possible because Errol and Benson died when Trigger was about one year old, but what I saw as I got to know Trigger was the Gentleness of Errol, The Thinking of Benson and The retriever gathering instinct of Halley. I am looking forward to Friday when they come home and I won’t be a dog(g)one wife anymore. The training will continue for 3 more weeks at home when Tom and Trigger will go through all of Tom’s usual routes and Trigger will meet the Galwegians who are excited about a new guide-dog coming to Galway.
The pair have already hit the headlines last week ‘Today FM’ and TV3 news broadcast from the centre and both featured well.
Trigger
10th June 2006