[Cagdu] FW: A Guide Dog With Clout Calls It a Day - New York Times

[tina thomas]

Subject: A Guide Dog With Clout Calls It a Day - New York Times




The New York Times

April 20, 2008
Murray Hill

A Guide Dog With Clout Calls It a Day
By ALEX MINDLIN

THE retirement party, held in a back room at the
Church of St. Agnes on East 43rd Street, had all the
elements typical of such gatherings: teary
photographs,
a table piled with small gifts, even two cakes topped
with the words "Happy Retirement," although the
retiree was not allowed to taste them.

That did not appear to bother the guest of honor, a
squirmy, 11-year-old snow-white Lab named Ruger who,
on Thursday afternoon, was snapping up chunks of
diced chicken tossed at him by an admirer.

Ruger is a guide dog, and for the past nine years, he
has guided Kevin Coughlin, a 46-year-old resident of
Murray Hill, around the city. Mr. Coughlin, who
lost his sight in 1997 as a result of a genetic
condition, has waged several high-profile fights to
require businesses in the city to open their doors
to guide dogs, as they are required to do by law.

Mr. Coughlin has twice filed complaints with the
Taxi and Limousine Commission
against cabbies who he said had refused to allow Ruger
into their taxis.

In 2002, Mr. Coughlin filed a discrimination complaint
with the city against a coffee shop from which he said
Ruger had been ejected. In that year, he also
let a news producer with a hidden camera trail him as
he and Ruger were turned away from various businesses.
("No dog," said the tout outside a restaurant
on First Avenue. "Maybe somebody no like dogs.")

But Ruger is not as spry as he was. After nearly a
decade of trotting around the city, Ruger has
developed arthritis. "He has more trouble with stairs
now,"
Mr. Coughlin explained, rubbing the dog's back
distractedly. Two days after the party, Mr. Coughlin
and a friend planned to drive Ruger to his new home,
a 30-acre spread with three ponds in Orange County,
north of New York, where friends of Mr. Coughlin's
live.

"It's enormously difficult," Mr. Coughlin said of the
move. "We have a very intimate relationship, because
it's virtually 24/7. We've been in so many places,
and done so many things."

At the party, which drew 40 or 50 guests, the
conversation naturally turned to Ruger stories.

"Do you know the story about Ruger being attacked by a
swan in East Hampton?" someone asked. Adam Brecht, a
friend and occasional traveling companion of
Mr. Coughlin's, recalled their stay at the Excelsior
hotel in Rome. "Ruger loved it," Mr. Brecht said. "He
had a 'forward my mail to the Excelsior' sort
of attitude.' "

As the stories unfolded, their subject lapped
obliviously at a bowl of water. It was 6:30 p.m.,
almost time to go, and the top of Ruger's head was
stained
with lipstick kisses.

http://www.nytimes.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/nyregion/thecity/20dog.html?_r=1&ref=thec
ity&oref=slogin>
com/2008/04/20/nyregion/thecity/20dog.html?_r=1&ref=thecity&oref=slogin

Copyright 2008
The New York Times Company

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