So I haven’t been doing well for about a week. I have managed to scrape by going to events that were necessary, and by not thinking about anything at all, keeping my mind as blank as possible. I am feeling better yesterday and today, though, so I went with Brad to get our car serviced.
We were sitting at a desk talking with the car person and Hestia was wearing her red mesh vest and sitting on my lap. We had our backs to the room, so everyone could see us.
The service person was taking information from us and actively talking to us. About five people came by and from behind me, without asking or anything, just started petting Hestia or asking me questions about her while I am in the middle of a conversation! The first guy I just ignored at first, hoping he’d get the point. But after about 5-10 seconds I tried telling him not to pet. He kept petting. I had to block his hand. Then another came up, and another. They wanted to know all the usual questions about Hestia, her breed, her gender, how much she weighs, isn’t she so cute, is she related to Pekingese, etc. And they all kept trying to pet.
It was SO annoying! I was trying to focus on our conversation with the car guy, and this made it very difficult. I know no one meant badly by it, they just saw a cute dog and didn’t read the vest. But sheesh, can’t they see I am busy and at least they shouldn’t try to talk to me, much less my service dog.
I do have to say I got kinda snippy the more this went on. The first guy I was polite to. But by person number 5, when they reached out to pet I said “No, don’t pet her she’s working!” kinda snippily, and maneuvered Hestia out of reach. Oh, and they were all employees!
Oh well, at least the good news is that I am feeling better enough to actually write about it in my blog 🙂
Been there done that. One guy actually reached around me to get at Eowyn! Another, in a different place, asked if she could pet and when I said no she glared at me.
There are 2 people in my grocery store who are allowed to pet Eowyn and get kisses for her. And I’ve actually heard children ask their mother if they could pet her. Amazingly, there have been times when the parent was familiar with service dogs and told their kids no, shes a service dog and she’s working. Some have used the word helper dog to make it a little clearer to their kid.
You run into all types.
Should say from her, not for her, LOL