Hello everyone, it’s me – Fiji.
I took Mom on another adventure recently. This time we went on a street art tour of the place called Salt River. I’ve taken Mom there before, when she wanted to visit the Cape Town Society for the Blind, but we weren’t going there this time. Instead we went for a walk along the streets and Mom and Dad kept looking at pictures on the walls of the buildings. It was very strange, but they seemed to enjoy it.
Anyway, that’s not what I want to tell you about today. I actually want to let you know about something I realized while watching over what my mom was doing on that day. Several times I saw her reach out and run her fingers across bits of the wall, as if trying to find out something. I also saw her holding her phone up to those bits of wall and then swiping her fingers on the screen while listening intently.
I eventually figured out that Mom was using her fingers and ears to find out information. And I guess that sort of makes sense. After all, I use my ears to find out when it’s time for a meal, or for a walk, and to listen when Mom is telling me where she wants me to take her next.
I also use my eyes to find out information. Now, I know Mom’s eyes don’t work very well. She’s just like my brother Onyx, except her eyes are even worse than his are. Actually, I think it’s a very good thing that I’m usually with Mom otherwise she would really be in trouble because her eyes are so bad.
But what I don’t understand is why Mom doesn’t use her nose? I have a beautiful nose. I use it to help me find out all sorts of fascinating information. By simply raising my nose and sniffing the air I can discover so much. There are so many scents. At one stage on the street tour we walked past a house and I was instantly captivated by the smell of delicious food. I don’t know if Mom and Dad were aware of it, but we didn’t go into that very interesting house to learn more, which was very sad.
There were lots of other fascinating scents on the tour that I tried to tell my mom about. If she had wanted to know, I could have told her all about the dogs, cats and people who had been walking around in the area. I could have pointed out all sorts of interesting things. But Mom was more interested in using her ears and fingers than her nose.
I wish I could make Mom understand how much she’s missing out on by not using this most useful source of information. But I simply don’t know how to do that. Do you have any ideas for me to try?
