The adventures of SD Juno and SDIT Kaline (and their human, Colt).

02 May 2012

Giants game

Last night, Danny, Juno and I went to the Giants game! We actually ended up getting to see my friends Sonja and Nicole, who both also have service dogs. It was crazy we ended up at the same game! Sonja and her SD, Jolanda (who is the cutest little Australian Cattle Dog ever) came to visit us at our seats. I keep score during ballgames and won't move unless I am forced. Sonja fostered a litter for her local shelter, and it turns out she kept one of the pups, Chief, to train as Jolanda's successor! So that was pretty exciting.

Juno spent the game conked out behind my legs (and Danny's, of course—she's big). Despite worries about squishing her in a small space, that arrangement actually worked out a lot better than having her in front of our feet, which is what we did in Sacramento. She hardly moved at all, where in Sacramento, she was a bit fidgety sometimes. And amazingly enough, people were able to get by us without stepping on any of Juno's paws or her tail! Win.

After the game, we decided to take the elevator down. I do not do well in crowds (like the one going down the ramp). I ended up in a crowd anyway, waiting outside the elevator vestibule, and while we were basically trapped by people, with Juno blocking as best she could, some guy reached down and started fondling her ears. Normally I'm happy to educate the general public, but when I'm trying to hold it together, and Juno's doing her best to help, and someone jumps in trying to pet/distract, I am, shall we say, bitchy.

I smacked his hand lightly, and said, “Don't pet her, she's a service dog.” As if it wasn't obvious, what with the many patches and the harness. He looked at me like I was the meanest person ever. Don't care.

Then I heard Nicole and her family calling—they were in line too! So we moved back a little in line, and Danny got to meet everyone. Juno and Becker, Nicole's SD, were incredibly cute, having their little reunion. Even after we told them to go back to work, they kept sneaking sniffs. And you just have to laugh.

We got on the same elevator, and heard a lovely wonderful mother telling her kids, “Those dogs aren't for petting. They're working dogs.” I absolutely love it when I hear parents educating their kids. I also love going around with other SD handlers, because invariably they're much better than I at answering the various questions we always get.

Juno pulled marvelously all the way back to the car, and did pretty much the cutest thing Danny and I had ever seen. Normally she has no problem walking on any kind of surface, but we came up to this metal plate in the sidewalk (solid, not a grate), and totally nonchalantly, Juno jumped over it and then resumed her steady pulling. Barely broke stride. We were laughing about that for a while!

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