FAIRPORT, N.Y. (WROC) — Chait is a puppy taking the first steps to becoming a guide dog. He lives with Chris Coyne; a volunteer and puppy raiser for Guiding Eyes for the Blind.

“Chait is an absolute joy,” Coyne said. “He’s full of energy, he’s very smart. Chait wants to please. He has eye contact that is spetacular, he loves his walks. Chait’s special.”

Guiding Eyes, based in Yorktown Heights, breeds and trains dogs. They give out dogs to the puppy raisers who are with them for almost two years. After that, the dogs receive four to six months of intensive training. From those, only about 50% “graduate” and to go people who need them. The company foots the $50,000 bill to raise the dogs.

“We’re lucky enough to have all of our senses, but some aren’t, and these dogs make all of the difference in the world for those individuals,” Coyne said.

Coyne mostly raises and trains the dog, but his friends Stu Chait and Linda Hewitt chip in occasionally.

“It’s fun,” Coyne said. “It gives Chait exposure, and it gives their family the opportunity to see this wonderful puppy named after Cindy.”

Cindy Chait was the Monroe Regional manager for Guiding Eyes. She died on March 15th; about five years after she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Cindy Chait, courtesy of Guiding Eyes for the Blind

“Cindy would be proud,” Coyne said. “She would be happy, knowing that he was bringing joy to Stu, Linda, and myself.”

“I actually went to Guiding Eyes and asked them to name a puppy after her,” said Linda Hewitt, Cindy’s sister. “She had given so much of her time and dedicated her life to this, and I was told that I could.”

“She would be very humbled by it, because she did not like being the center of attention,” said Stu Chait, Cindy’s husband.

Chait was named the same day that Cindy died, but unlike his namesake, Chait the puppy loves to be the center of attention.

Chait the 7-month-old puppy

“Personalities are a good thing, and he’s got a good one,” Stu said.

Besides dog-sharing her namesake with a service dog, Cindy left more behind. Hewitt was bit by a dog when she was younger, but with Cindy’s help, Hewitt developed a love for dogs, and now helps raise for Guiding Eyes.

“Cindy’s purpose in life was to raise these guide dogs, and help Guiding Eyes, and help blind people live an active life,” Hewitt said. “I can’t say enough about her. I’m very proud of her.”

Cindy and Lewitt’s mother went blind with glaucoma in her 60s, and didn’t have a guide dog. She helped her grandmother after her son, Stewart Chait Jr., went off to college.

“It was her new purpose in life,” Hewitt said. “(It) was to give back and help somebody, and what better way to than to honor our grandmother than to help raise dogs to help those who are visually impaired.”

Chris Coyne, Linda Hewitt (Cindy’s sister) and Stu Chait (Cindy’s husband)

Cindy’s husband, Stu, remembers her as brimming with passion and purpose.

“We were involved for the better part of 25 years, raising 20-some dogs, and for the first three years she was just a puppy raiser,” Stu said. “Then Cindy along another woman, Donna Rice, became the region coordinators and they ran it for 15 years or so. Her whole purpose was to make the dogs better, to make the raisers better, and she would not hesitate to answer any questions.

“Cindy was a very caring person, a very giving person, and always considerate of those less fortunate, and I think between that and her grandmother went blind, is what turned to Guiding Eyes,” Stu said. “It was just something that she wanted to give something of herself to make others better. Cindy makes the people around her better. That’s just the effect she had on people.

“When it was all said and done, people were calling her ‘The Dog Whisperer.’ She just knew dogs,'” Stu said.

Chait has a big service vest to fill. The first dog that Linda raised, named Cindy, was scored in the top 4% of dogs in Guiding Eyes. However, no matter what his path is, or who he goes to, he will continue Cindy’s legacy.

“Everything lives on,” Stu said.