Sifting through papers over the weekend, I came across a sheet titled, “All About Me”. It was a handout given by the church to returning Sunday School students about their teacher. I taught high school.
Reading through, I laughed out loud reading my answer to the question, “what is your most irrational fear?” Answer: Dogs – big and small.
This is humorous because I “babysat” my daughter’s dog three times last week, and have spent considerable time with my son’s dog as well.
In the last three years, my youngest and her husband, along with my son and his wife introduced new puppies to our family. Tales about both dogs joining the family are here if interested.
I’ve grown to love their dogs and truly appreciate the extraordinary loyalty, understanding and companionship of a good pup. Bonus: they are fun!
However, I wonder where pets in public places fit in this increasingly boundary-less world. Many places are perfectly fine for pets. Others, not so much.
A few years back, there was a questionable escalation of pet owners applying for “service animal” status to ensure they could bring furry family members to places not typically allowing pets. That evolved into an assumption that service or not, owners can bring their animal into virtually any building.
A month ago, I stood in a long line at the post office when a woman at the counter purchasing stamps watched her dog poop on the floor. She curtly apologized to the U.S. Postal rep with his mouth ajar and quickly walked out the door without cleaning the mess. She held her head high as she passed the long line of us processing what just happened, mirroring the postal worker’s shocked expression.
Days later, I was at Nordstrom when a woman strolled around, talking incessantly to her dog, pampering it like Elle Woods in Legally Blonde does with Bruiser.
Twenty minutes after I forgot about her, there was a commotion at the entrance of a fitting room. I heard the dog-shopper’s same voice, but this time a small group of annoyed women gathered around her, exchanging a few words. Sure enough, the dog went on the floor of a beautiful department store where people go to escape from the messiness of home and work.
These cuties? They want to be greeted with the same enthusiasm as they welcome us, not given a side-eye and frown by people waiting for a public mishap that is more the fault of the owner, not the pet.
Tales from a Mid-Lifer 
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