Remember, I wrote earlier about how Tango, the lab seeing eye dog-in-training, broke me in as a test blind person, wearing glasses that completely obscured my vision.  Here's what happened after the panic attack gave way to real panic:

After about two minutes being pulled along like a dead cow by Tango, it suddenly all became too much. "Stop! Stop!" I cried. "How do I get her to stop?"  It seemed odd. I had been shown how to go forward but that was the last thing I wanted to do right now.  It was like driving a car then finding out that no one had showed me where the brakes were.  I was told to just say "Halt!", so I did...and sure enough my wonderful guide dog immediately stopped.  Thank God; I needed a moment to regroup.

I was feeling ridiculously emotional and out of control.   And at the same time I felt so bad for this dog, who must have wondered what the problem was.   Did I mention this was all being captured on film?  Great!  Now everyone can see me lose it, I thought.  I took a deep breath and, grinning like a nervous chimpanzee, struggled forward again.   Suddenly, I became aware that the harness was not rigid under my hand but swayed back and forth so that I was very aware of Tango's body movement.  I was very conscious of her rhythm.   It suddenly reminded me of when I was being taught dressage riding by a German instructor who would not allow us any stirrups, reins or vision.  "Close your eyes!" he would scream like Frau what's-her-name in an Austin Powers movie.  "You need to be one with zee horse!"  I suddenly felt that way with Tango, and it was as though a weight was off my shoulders.  Tango immediately sensed the change in my psyche.  She walked faster, my pace picked up and I almost started to enjoy the walk. She took me across a road, around a puddle (I saw all these afterwards) and kept me in the middle of the winding path, which interestingly enough I had thought was straight. Even though I had seen the path before donning the glasses, I had no recollection of its curves

"Tell her, left, left, find the bench," said the instructor.  I did so and before I knew it I was instructed to reach down and find Tango's nose, and two inches in front would be the bench. It was. I sat down gratefully and took off my glasses with a great sense of relief. It had been an incredible emotional roller coaster. But the strongest feeling was how amazing, how truly awesome, in the correct sense of the word, this beautiful dog was. How did she do all this? Of course many hours of skilled training but it was more than that. She had picked up my apprehension and somehow, in the space of about fifteen minutes, won my complete trust. I bent down with tears in my eyes in admiration and thanks to her. She lifted her lovely head and licked me on the nose. Wow!

Tango, you just owned my heart.