Continued From The First Page
A Country Dog Finds a Home in the West Village.
coats and immediately stopped dead in her tracks, begging to be picked up. Four years later, however, Sky is proof that a country dog can learn a whole lot of city tricks.
"I knew her training was complete when we ran into this woman with a chihuahua in a pink tutu and Sky stopped to play," said Benjamin, an author and world-renowned dog trainer.
"I said 'O.K we have come a long way from the farm.'"
Sky now takes a staring role in Benjamin's new book, "Do Border Collies Dream of Sheep?" which
tells the tale of how two dogs from the same litter were trained into service dogs. One is May, who
became a sheep dog in North Carolina where the two were born. The other is Sky, who assists
Benjamin with what she calls her invisible disability — the inflammatory bowel disease Crohn's.
The book was co-authored with May's owner, C. Denise Wall, but for Benjamin her part has taken a
lifetime to write.
"This was a huge, huge book for me," Benjamin said of the story that reveals how the wolf-like
qualities of Border Collies contribute to their working life.
Benjamin, who also wrote the best selling book "Mother Knows Best: the Natural Way to Train
Your Dog," trained Sky to assists her during random bouts of excruciating pain caused by Crohn's
disease.
"She leans against my side when there is intestinal pain. It is the heat, the energy and the pressure,
" she said. Without any command, Sky can sense when she is in pain.
According to Benjamin, the very presence of the dog triggers endorphins that diminish the body's
response to pain.
Benjamin recalls that life in the West Village with a service dog was challenging at first. Cafés and
restaurants refused Benjamin service because of her constant four-legged companion.
Now, Benjamin takes Sky to local cafes, such as Meme's on Hudson and Bank Streets or for a walk
along the Highline. She even goes to the Sports Center at Chelsea Piers with Sky by her side.
"When I am with Sky I feel perfectly normal," Benjamin said.
Architect Talks:
A New Series from GVSHP
Focus on 13th Street
New construction within the various designated historic districts in Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo must go through a rigorous public hearing and review process. This affords the public the opportunity to speak to and hear from architects about their thoughts on appropriate design for their neighborhoods, with the Landmarks Preservation Commission charged with making the final call on “appropriateness.” However,...when new construction takes place outside of designated historic districts, typically there is no public hearing or review process for the design, and little or no dialogue with the public about it. Though these buildings may have just as profound an aesthetic effect upon their surroundings, decisions about materials, design, and context are generally made solely by the architect and client, based upon practical considerations
and their own perspective.
In this new series of Architects Talks, GVSHP invites the architects of several new buildings in our
neighborhoods with interesting responses to their contexts and design challenges to engage in a
post-facto talk about their design choices and processes. The first series focuses on 13th Street,
where a series of new designs play with the traditional and the modern, relating to and standing
out from their surroundings.
A New Series from GVSHP
Jane Jacobs, OC, O.Ont (May 4, 1916–April 25, 2006) was an American-born Canadian writer and activist with primary interest in communities and urban planning and decay. She is best known for The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961), a powerful critique of the urban renewal policies of the 1950s in the United States. The book has been credited with reaching beyond planning issues to influence the spirit of the times.
Along with her well-known printed works, Jacobs is equally well-known for organizing grassroots efforts to block urban-renewal projects that would have destroyed local neighborhoods. She was instrumental in the eventual cancellation of the Lower Manhattan Expressway, and after moving to Canada in 1968, equally influential in canceling the Spadina Expressway and the associated network of highways under construction.
