Guide dog a ‘miracle’ for owner
Published: July 29, 2005
Jessica Stam might like to change the gender of that old saying after her new guide dog kept her from being hit by a car.
Stam, 25, was walking with Joan, a 2-year-old yellow Labrador retriever, when the dog stopped at a driveway and refused to budge even with Stam’s prompting.
Then a car suddenly bolted from the driveway. If Stam had been in its path, she would have been hit hard.
The woman driver was apologetic.
“The woman didn’t see us,” Stam said. “She said, ‘Oh, my God, I am so sorry.’
“Joan saved my life. With just my cane, I would have been road kill.”
Stam said Joan was displaying a behavior called “intelligent disobedience,” which causes guide dogs to disobey their owners when there’s a need.
Stam, who is legally blind, has a genetic eye disease called retinitis pigmentosa that causes tunnel vision.
She has virtually no peripheral vision. Before getting Joan four months ago, she used a cane, but it was not easy.
Stam was given Joan through a charity based in San Rafael, Calif., called Guide Dogs For The Blind.
Joan will lead Stam around objects and watch for cars as well.
“There’s so much I can do now that I couldn’t do before,” Stam said.
“I was always nervous even when I would go to the grocery store. I would knock over displays. Joan stops and goes around it. She stops for obstacles. She looks to see what’s there.”
Stam said with a cane she could maneuver some.
“Joan clears an object, whereas with a cane I had to tap and go around it. Another reason I got a guide dog was I wanted to be approachable by crowds wherever I go,” Stam said.
Now that she has a dog, Stam said, strangers are friendly and helpful. They understand she is visually impaired.
“The general public is much more sensitive to a handicap when you have a guide dog. With my cane, most people would avoid me. I hated it. I felt self-conscious,” she said.
“There’s nothing I can’t do now, except drive. I really have that much self-confidence.”
Stam lives with her mother, Becky Stam.
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