People I meet

I meet a lot of people while I am out doing my job. Most are perfectly fine and look at me and smile, especially the kids. I’ve also had a couple of experiences that I would sooner forget about. Experiences like the woman I scared while we were shopping and the little boy that kicked me while I was sitting and being good.

Most of the time, the kids spot me first and tell their parents. It is kind of funny because everywhere we go we always hear, “Mom; there’s a dog. Mom, Mom, Mommmmmie; there’s a dog” or “doggie, doggie, doggie”. A lot of the kids ask their parents why I’m in the store. Most parents take the time to explain that I’m learning to be a guide dog. I don’t know if the kids understand what that means. I wish that more parents would take the time to explain to their kids what I’m training to do. The best experience I had was on my very first outing to the grocery store. There was a woman with a boy and she kneeled next to her son and pointed at me and told him that I was training to be a guide. She told him that I will be someone’s eyes. The boy smiled at me and I wagged at both of them to tell the mom thanks. Most of the time I hear ‘don’t pet her because she is working’, which is fine, but it leaves the kids a little confused about me.

We also had some strange encounters. There was one Mom that tried to convince her kids that Julimae and I weren’t dogs. I walk like a dog, bark like a dog (although I don’t do that anymore) and I wag like a dog. I’m pretty sure I’m a dog. Her son thought so too because he told his Mom that he was pretty sure we were dogs. There was also the time that we took the train with Mom and Julimae and some man said to Mom, “What’s wrong with you?” There was also the time at the grocery store when a woman stopped Mom to tell her she thought I was cute. She talked to Mom for a long time and she said that there were guide lizards. Dad tried to save her by saying that it was probably an emotional support companion but the woman insisted that the lizard was a working guide. I can’t imagine what a lizard would look like in a harness. But through the course of the conversation, we learned that guide lizards and guide ponies are acceptable to JetBlue airlines.

The fun thing about having a blog are the emails that I get and checking to see who reads about me. I’m big in Turkey and Canada. I’ve even had an email from a celebrity. I can’t say who it is but it came from Russia with love.