Raising canine

By Elizabeth Janice

David and Melissa Hudson are “foster parents” to potential guide dog puppies. Both 1996 graduates from Cal State San Bernardino’s School of Humanities (now known as the College of Arts and Letters), Melissa, who is legally blind, got her own guide dog, Anya, in 2003. Seeing the dramatic difference that Anya made in Melissa’s life, they decided to become “puppy raisers” themselves. To date, the couple, who lives in Los Angeles, has raised three service dogs.

Melissa Varela, as she was known in college, and David met on campus in Poli-Sci 203. “He was a freshman and I was a sophomore,” Melissa recalls. “And it blossomed from there.” When the two graduated in 1996, Melissa had earned her B.A. in liberal studies and David a B.A. in communications. They were married in 1998.

It was during college that Melissa began to lose her sight. “But it wasn’t something I fully grasped,” she admits. Today, she has some central vision but no peripheral vision. When she learned a few years after graduating that her condition was incurable, she was devastated. “My world crashed right around me, until I was finally ready to get out of my four walls and live life.”

Melissa turned to Guide Dogs for the Blind. The organization, which is based in San Rafael, pairs visually impaired people throughout the U.S. and Canada with trained guide dogs free of charge. (A sister campus is located in Boring, Ore.) “I lived on campus for 28 days. The trainers work with you one-on-one and have a sense of what kind of person would work well with what dog. And it was really cute when they introduced me to Anya. They said, ‘If she were a person, this would be you. She’s sweet and sensitive, but a little spitfire,’” Melissa laughs.

“She opened up my world. We joke about how the best thing about going blind is getting Anya,” Melissa continues. A year and half later, Melissa and David returned to San Rafael for the annual Fun Day event. “That’s when it really touched David. He said, ‘I would love to help somebody else get that independence that Anya has given you.’ And I said, ‘We’ll do it as a family.’”

The young guide-dog-in-training is placed with its foster family at the tender age of 8 weeks. “The puppy is with you nonstop, 24/7, for about a year and a half. We gradually take them out and socialize them all over — malls, parks, shopping centers and public transit — to get them used to a variety of experiences. The puppies also go with me every day to the office,” says David, who is the head of product management for a software company he helped start. “It’s so much work, but also incredibly rewarding.”

Melissa and David Hudson with Melissa’s guide dog, Anya, and Guide Dogs for the Blind's puppy in training, Saturna.

Their first puppy, a black lab named Martine, made it as a guide dog, but not all puppies that go into training do. Their second puppy, Greta, was sensitive to traffic and had to be “career changed.” She is now a licensed therapy dog. And their third puppy, Saturna, a yellow lab, is currently in Phase 8 (out of 10) of her formal training at the San Rafael campus. “The puppy is part of your family. That moment when you have to take it back to the school, you say, ‘Oh my gosh. I may never see this puppy again.’” says Melissa. “It doesn’t matter how many puppies you raise, they each take a special place in your heart.”

Melissa enjoys doing outreach events for organizations that serve the visually impaired. “One of my biggest passions is to talk about my experiences and educate the public about what these dogs do and what a wonderful thing it is,” she says. “As a disabled person, I may do things a little differently. But that does not mean that I cannot give back as well.”

Elizabeth Janice is an East Coast-based freelance writer who has written for national women’s magazines, including Family Circle, Woman’s Day, All You and Essence. She earned her B.A. from the University of Michigan and her M.A. from New York University.

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