Feb. 9, 1956: Bambi the Seeing Eye dog at fundraiser

William Richardson, 11, was the focus of this photograph, which was published on Feb. 9, 1956. But the real celebrity in the shot was Bambi, described as the most popular Seeing Eye dog in Montreal. The occasion was the 48th annual dinner party of the Montreal Association for the Blind, held at the Central YMCA. William was among the 250 blind people invited to the dinner, the photo caption said. The goal: to raise a total of $200,000 for the association and two others that served those with visual impairments. The audience was told that more volunteers were needed for canvassing. William, who attended the Montreal School for the Blind, would have been unfamiliar to most newspaper readers. Not so Bambi, the guide dog of George Cohen, for four decades an ambassador for the blind in the city. Bambi was known to thousands of Montreal students thanks to school visits with Cohen, who stressed the importance of taking care of your eyes, we reported. Bambi was “an inveterate exhibitionist,” we said, who “can sing, pick things out of people’s pockets, and stand up on her hind legs to shake people’s hands.” She even managed to save her master from a gun-wielding bank robber on May 25, 1950, when she and Cohen were strolling up Beaver Hall Hill. A thief exiting the Bank of Toronto opened fire on police, and Bambi led Cohen to shelter while the gun battle continued. On another occasion, she pulled him away from an empty elevator shaft. Cohen went on to have several other guide dogs. He died in 1986. The date of Bambi’s demise is unknown.