Dog Names Ending in da

Mhairi Thurston of Dundee describes her life as being “turned upside down” when she started losing her eyesight in 2000 due to a degenerative disease. The mother of three small children had no idea what she was going to do and stopped going anywhere alone because she felt so vulnerable. She was afraid of everything and quit her job as a teacher, losing all her confidence in herself and becoming depressed. 

Before losing her eyesight, Thurston’s life had been great. She was doing the work she loved as a teacher, had two children, and was pregnant with her third child. At 39, she thought she had everything she could ever want. There were no previous diagnoses of sight loss in Thurston’s family, so the diagnosis was a big shock. When she was registered legally blind in 2002, Thurston realized she was not going to be able to continue on with her life the way it was. 

She got her first guide dog in 2004, Wanda, a Labrador Retriever, and she said that dog saved her life. Not only did Wanda help Thurston with her daily activities such as walking and finding things, but she also helped her run errands and take care of the children. Thurston said it was Wanda who gave her the confidence back, so she could leave the house and even started taking a counseling course to start a new career, which is hard enough over the age of 50 but even harder for someone who is blind. 

But, with Wanda, Thurston felt like she could do anything, and she proved that by getting her Ph.D. and becoming a lecturer at the Abertay University in Dundee. She is studying the social and emotional effects of those who lose their eyesight. Thurston wants to help those who are going through what she went through when she learned she was losing her vision. In fact, she designed a counseling model specific to helping those who are losing their sight. And Thurston feels like she owes her success to her pawesome guide dog, Wanda.

With Wanda by her side, Thurston was able to walk her kids to school and back, take them to playgrounds, and then do the shopping and other errands. Then, after school, they would take the kids to their afterschool activities such as swimming and gymnastics. Wanda was such an amazing guide dog that she won the Guide Dog of the Year Award in 2004 and was the first dog ever to win this award given by the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association.