Today I had a very good day with my friend Sabrina and her service dog, Indy.
We met up at Sabrina’s favorite restaurant, Chicken Salad Chick. She had me hold Indy outside on the patio while she went in to place our order. I had Felix on the ground on his mat next to me, and Indy was across the table from Felix. They did so well! They just lay there and didn’t try to get up or interact! I took a couple pictures to prove it LOL!
In the pictures, Felix is a sable and white Japanese Chin wearing a purple vest, and Indy is a Golden Retriever wearing a teal harness.
Sabrina came back, and shortly after, they brought our food. Felix was really good during the meal! It was actually the perfect location to train because it has a semi-busy road running by the restaurant. Felix has had issues with road noise, and this road noise was enough to train with, but not so much that he was too nervous or overwhelmed to train. So I was very happy we ate out on the patio!
Felix did excellently during our meal! He lay there like a good boy, and only got up a couple times. I was easily able to redirect him back to lying on his mat. I got a couple pictures of him lying on his rainbow mat.
After we ate, Sabrina and I got out our book that we’re reading together about worrying. We read a little bit of it together, and Felix got a little bored. He started getting up more frequently.
I needed to refill my drink, so I took Felix inside with me and he was a disaster! There was a lot of food on the floor, and he did NOT want to leave it alone. It was so embarrassing! Everyone in the restaurant thought our struggles were hilarious, but I was mortified! Luckily we were in and out really quickly.
When we got back outside, Felix was pretty much done with lying on the ground, so for the rest of the time we read our book, I put him on my lap. He was happy there.
Next we headed to Ollie’s. I forgot my phone in my car, so we didn’t get any pictures or video in there. Felix did a good job of heeling around the store. It’s a complicated one, with lots of stuff in the aisles. So he practiced his through command a lot. I was able to actually shop in the store instead of just focusing on training Felix. I was very proud. I didn’t end up getting anything, though, LOL!
To continue our whirlwind outing, we next headed to Michael’s. I arrived a long time before Sabrina did, so Felix and I did some selfies in the wind! It was a beautiful day with blue skies, sun, and a little more wind than was necessary LOL. I am wearing my dark purple dress that I crocheted.
Michael’s was fun, as we picked out some iron on vinyl for a Japanese Chin dress Sabrina is making me! We saw several other fun things in the store, but I forgot to take pictures or video. Mostly I was following Sabrina around as she did her shopping, and training Felix along the way, which is just what I wanted to do.
We also stopped into TJ Maxx, which is in the same shopping complex. Sabrina wanted to look at the clothing, and that was very challenging because the aisles were super narrow and there were lots of poles in the way. Indy did a good job of just pushing the clothing out of her way as she walked past the poles, but Felix had to do a lot of throughs. I got a picture of how narrow the spaces were, and a video of Felix going through them.
We passed a lot of mirrors in the clothing section, so I got a fun picture of Felix in the mirror, and some of both of us in the mirror!
It was SO crowded in TJ Maxx! There were people everywhere!!! It was so hard to get around the store, but Felix did a really good job of things. I was very proud of him. Throughout all the stores so far, I used only half of a cheese stick as rewards.
Our final stop on our very very busy day was Sam’s Club. It’s difficult for wheelchair users to go to Sam’s Club because they don’t have baskets we can easily use. When I go with Brad, he pulls a cart along behind him, but I can’t do that and hold Felix. I was planning on using a store cart that has a basket on it, but it was so busy that I was sure all the store carts would be taken.
So I decided to bring a really big tote bag and use that to hold all my items. Sabrina drove a shopping cart with her feet!!! What a sight we made going around Sam’s Club! Me with a dog on my lap, things piled up on my footplate and a huge tote bag resting on my armrest. And Sabrina with a rogue cart that collided with several things and Indy watching her with a resigned look on her face! We had fun in Sam’s, and were able to get everything we needed.
We did take some pictures of us and our different approaches to shopping at Sam’s Club! I think they’re pretty funny!
Eventually we made it out of there! We said goodbye and headed to our cars. When I got to my car, I noticed that the person next to me had parked over into the access aisle (the hash marked space next to an accessible space). They had parked basically the width of my wheelchair from the side away from where my ramp extended to!
I didn’t want to wait for them to finish their shopping, so I tried really hard to maneuver. What I ended up doing was driving over the bottom of my ramp (it has raised sides, so I drove over the sides) with my left two wheels. When I had my back left wheel on the ramp and my front left wheel past the ramp, I backed up and turned hard. My footplate and front wheels slid underneath the body of the car next to us, and my knees scraped along the door of the car. But I made the turn and was able to back the rest of the way up the ramp! Yay, go me!
It was a long outing, but it was a very good Friday! I just hope that Sabrina’s not too tired! I am doing OK, but I had a much shorter drive than she did!