Fidelco Friends: Keeping in Touch On-Line

Before Jody Ianuzzi applied for and received “Orsa,” she wanted to find out what it was really like to have a guide dog. “You hear all the miraculous stories, but you never hear about the dogs having an accident in the middle of the mall,” she said. “I wanted to hear the real stories.”

Jody subscribed to several on-line guide dog user lists and found the discussions to be helpful in making her decision to apply to Fidelco.

After she got Orsa in 2005, she felt that it would be fun to have a Fidelco on-line list and in November of that year, she started “Fidelco Friends” on Yahoo.com. “Five or six people were involved at that time. I put the invitation out to some of the people I knew so that when they went to Yahoo and typed in Fidelco, they’d find the list. Now, we have between 70 and 90 people on our list and everybody’s welcome.”

Jody emphasizes that the list is informal and that it goes beyond just sharing information. “Over the last two years, we’ve been through personal problems; one of the member’s husband died, another’s sister died and people have lost dogs,” she said. “Being part of Fidelco Friends gives us a chance to sympathize and get together as friends, not just guide dog users.”

There’s also a lot of excitement when people get new dogs and reach milestones in their lives. “It’s a nice group,” Jody said. “We work on problems, we celebrate the wonderful things about our dogs and we share some absolutely hilarious stories about things that the dogs have done.”

Jody says that Fidelco Friends is a wonderful experience for its users and she is hopeful that it keeps growing; that more and more people join. To sign up as a Fidelco Friend or to simply get a feel for how the list works, visit groups.yahoo.com/group/fidelcofriends