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OkillLiving LIVING EDITOR: ANGELA BLACKBURN Phone: 905-337-5560 Fax: 905-337-5571 e-mail: ablackburn@oakvillebeaver.comThe business of needing a friend in deedBy Angela Blackburnwould have to be able to walk unassisted.OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFFDriven by her underlying love of ani-mals, Metz set her sights on a target andhat if you woke up one day tobegan work.find its six months later thanShe remained hospitalized for the betterWyou think because youve been inpart of a year, finally leaving to return on ana coma?out-patient basis. that you cant walk anymore andUpon returning home, Metz headed backto do so again, if its at all possible, will taketo Sheridan she had received her pro-more than a year of wheelchairs, walkers,gram acceptance letter while laying in hos-canes, practice and hospitalization?pital in a coma, she said.and if you do walk again, you wont seeThough her stepmom used to have towhere youre going because, as a doctortake her to school and walk her to class,delivered the news, your world has goneEuro changed all that. dark because you are now blind and will notRoth could just drop Metz off at the frontsee again for the rest of your life?door and off she went.What if you were only 23 years old?It was a shorter wait, after applicationand interview, than Metz thought it wouldKristen Metz of Oakville has had a lot of be to get Euro.firsts recently all of the above.He, too, began his journey to Metzs lifeWhat has she done with it? Metz is walk-while she was learning to walk again.ing again, has a new dog guide, just gradu-Born into the life of a dog guide hisated from computer programming atsister is also a dog guide Euro spent aSheridan College Institute of Technologyyear in training in a foster home (Metz hasand Advanced Learning and recently madea photo of him as a puppy, thanks to theher first solo trip to Texas to visit friends.caring touch of his foster family).After experiencing all of that in the wakeThen he spent six months in training toof having viral encephalitis (swelling of thebe a dog guide.brain caused by an unknown virus whoseThen came the three weeks he and Metzeffect was to crush her optic nerves), whenspent living and training together at thethe now 27-year-old recently got a new dogOakville dog guide facility.named Euro, making the adjustment toMetz was there a couple of days beforebeing the owner of a big dog like Euroshe even met Euro.wasnt the toughest of challenges.It was frustrating when he at first lis-In fact, Euros arrival last September hastened to the trainer hed grown accustomedbeen one of the few welcome new events into instead of Metz. However, the big break-Metzs life lately.through came when Euro finally did listenHaving gone back to school and justto Metz instead.graduated from a two-year program, MetzWhen she brought him home, her familyREG VERTOLLI / OAKVILLE BEAVERsaid Euros arrival made her final semesterswas supposed to ignore him so the twoat Sheridan far easier than her first.could continue bonding.WALKING THE WALK:Kristen Metz and her dog guide Euro will be taking part in Sunday's No longer did she have to feel her wayWith experience limited to only a muchPurina Walk for Dog Guides. All proceeds go to the Lions Foundation of Canada Dog Guides, which down each hallway with a white cane,smaller, and senior, family dog Cinnamondoes not receive any government funding. It trains five types of dog guides canine vision, hear-searching for her way in the maze that isunder her belt, Metz said Euro was a biging ear, special skills, seizure response and autism assistance. For information, visit www.puri-the Trafalgar Road colleges Oakville cam-dog and a big care commitment for some-nawalkfordogguides.com.pus.one who was challenged in caring for her-With Euro, I could just walk down theself because of blindness.her dad, Dennis Metz and live with him and and doesnt even recall it.hall, said Metz.And tough as it was for Roth and Metzsher stepmom Susan Roth.That was in September when she was So what is it like, to experience all of thedad to ignore Euro though CinnamonAt some point, she began experiencing 23.above and also, after a long time, just bewas all for it they managed it and Metzheadaches, a feeling of unwellness and went The following March, Metz woke up. It able to walk freely down a hallway some-and Euro have bonded.to a walk-in clinic.was still September, she said, and it took where again? That is, if you know what itsYou do it with lots of food and love,It was likely the flu, she was told.some persuasion to convince her other-like to be there and put all your eggs in asaid Metz.Later came a trip to Emergency at wise.dogs basket.One of the people in the training usedOakville-Trafalgar Memorial Hospital News that she was blind was hard to Its been a long journey, sighs theto say, You have a new shadow, one that(OTMH). Likely a virus.take, but after a while, she also came to upbeat (the descriptor determined goesbreathes, said Metz who herself has learnedA trick back to Emergency, but Metz accept her life had taken on a very new con-without saying) Metz.to trust her new four-legged friend andcould count backwards by sevens, so she figuration.Born in Sarnia and raised in the U.S. bycompanion who is much more.came home again."I did my crying," she said.her mom Martha Hanley, Metz, who is anHe is my eyes, she said. Equally so,Then, she fell into a coma. According to She was in a wheelchair, but to get a dog only child, came to Oakville to work withSee Lions page 33Metz, there were a few days that she worked guide to help her maneuver, Metz said she www.insideHALTON.com OAKVILLE BEAVER Friday, May 27, 2011 30