"Go Get'em Sport"
A week before Sport was scheduled to go back to Leader Dog School, Tom and Lynn scheduled a day at the races at Balmoral Park as the monthly outing. Lynn had a giant dog bone baked with the inscription "Go Get'em Sport" that all the dogs shared. One race was dedicated to Leader Dogs, and we all got our pictures taken in the Winners Circle. Yes, that is a group of winners if ever there was one.
The next week we drove Sport to Rochester. On the way there was a huge storm, and as it cleared we saw the most perfect horizon to horizon rainbow we had ever seen, right in the direction of the Leader Dog School (picture below). An omen? That night, when I walked Sport, he lifted his leg to pee for the first time. We knew then that he was a little man and ready to go do the job he had been bred for.
At right we see Sport being escorted to his kennel at Leader Dog School. At the time we did not know if he'd be one of the 50% of the dogs who graduate or if we'd ever see him again. Nor did he have an inkling of what lay ahead.