Meredith

Meredith is a female black labrador that I puppysat for a while. I almost cried when she left 2 weeks ago, and I am still missing her. Meredith was a participant in a program at Coleman Camp called "IMPACT" in which female prisoners train dogs for blind people. The dogs are from Southeastern Guide Dog (SEGD) in Palmetto, Florida. It is an excellent program in which prisoners can give something back to society. I believe in the program and I applied to be a puppy raiser but I was accepted as a puppysitter.

I went through the training in which we learned the basic commands for the dogs such as: sit; down; stay; come; doors(when going through a door the puppy is to sit before you open and close the door); forward; busy, busy; big busy(to relieve); no; table under; etc. We also learn how to teach directional commands and the care and feeding of the puppies. I have puppysat a few puppies, but I never had the opportunity to take a puppy into my cubicle until Meredith arrived. The prisoner in charge of Meredith is a friend. I wrote about her before. She was the one who was driving the van when we have some Iraqi visitors a while ago Besides being my friend she is my neighbor, therefore for the first time, I had the opportunity to bring a puppy to my cubicle.

Meredith was very lovable and friendly with everybody. She was very intelligent too. She knew which cubicles she was welcome, she knew her raiser and her puppysitters well, she also knew that she could freely walk into my cubicle at any time. My friend would take her to our exercise or yoga class and Meredith would exercise with us and spread her legs, turn around, face up, face down right between us. When she was in my cubicle, I would throw myself on the floor with her, look into her eyes, & talk to her. Then she would lay on her back, legs open, for a full belly rub. She loved belly rubs. If I got tired and laid on my bunk, she would place her head on my bed near my face, and look at me, moving her tail, like trying to tell me that: "she wants to play" or "give me some attention, please." I heard her everyday in the morning when she got out of her kennel and stretched herself, nagging her tail and banging everything around her; I also heard her during the day when she was playing with her favorite toy: "the elephant squeaky." My friend wrote: "she is very nurturing-She had an elephant squeaky toy and if she could she would bring it with her everywhere. She carried it in her mouth squeezed it to make the squeaky noise and then played with it and slept with it under her head."

That squeaky noise brought sweet memories to my mind.When my son was less than 2 years old he loved to play with his yellow duck squeaky toy and I so enjoyed watching him. When I heard Meredith for the first time squeezing her elephant, my heart jumped to joy at the sweetness of that squeaky noise that I had not heard in 10 years. It was like I was alive again. I definitely did not want her to leave. But the day came and my friend wrote: "I knew the day would come when I would have to turn her over to Southeastern for more training- I dreaded that day when it came but I knew deep down inside that she was destined for greater things... The person who gets Meredith will be blessed for the days to come... take care of my precious baby girl for she will take care of you." I hugged Meredith endlessly. She made me realize how much I was in need of hugs and that the road has been too long ( as you may know we are not allowed to give or receive hugs in prison). More than 10 years without a hug on a regular basis destroys human emotions and feelings. We become dehumanized and we live like robots, but Meredith brought life back to some of those caring, nurturing human feelings that were asleep inside me.

It is an important human emotion to be able to express freely the emotions that we have been forced to suppress for the duration of our incarceration. These emotions are what make us feel alive.

I love you all.
Yraida L. Guanipa (Leo).
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Yraida L. Guanipa #44865-004
FCC Coleman-Camp
P.O. Box 1027
Coleman, Florida 33521-1027