Collecting for giuide dogs

[Michael Romanos]

Last Saturday, Taylor and I went street collecting for the guide dogs programme in New Zealand. There are only 200 blind people in NZ with a guide dog and it cost NZ$23,000 to raise and train a guide dog to where they can be assigned to a blind person.
Taylor and i stationed ourselves outside the local supermarket in Silverstream and we collected $300 in three hours which I thought was pretty good in this almost cashless society we have in NZ towns and cities. But without Taylor the collection would have been less than half that amount. He set the friendly atmosphere through his demeanour and cuteness. He received heaps of pats and when anyone mentioned the 'hello' word, Taylor was up on his back legs to greet them. Some people wanted to know if he was also a guide dog - well the Corgi certainly guides me around.