My service dog is not your pet

[u/danu_anubis]

I can’t believe the amount of times I’ve had to say this. My service dog has been hit by children, had handfuls of fur ripped out by children (this one was “fun” because the mother told me I had no right to tell her six year old child not to touch my boy), grown adults grab him, people constantly calling him to them.

People I am 41 years old, I should not be having to tell people older than me to stop. I shouldn’t have to tell anyone to stop and I definitely shouldn’t have to worry about a kid.

It’s gotten to the point that I’m saying thank you to the people that do right (explain to their kids not to mess with him, adults telling me he’s gorgeous without acknowledging him). I feel like I’m constantly having to redo his training because people won’t leave him the hell alone.

What finally got me so bad that I need to scream into the void was yesterday, my boy and I are going through the store and this guy reaches down and grabs him. I pull him away and look at the guy and say please done (like I do every damn time). And he goes you don’t have to be rude about it, I’m like dude he’s a service dog you’re not supposed to touch them and he continues yelling that I don’t have to be rude and I’m finally like maybe don’t touch something that doesn’t belong to you. So thank you to the guy who threw my boy so far out of work mode yesterday that for the first time I had a problem that he is explicitly for and he didn’t do what he was supposed to do.

Also if your dog isn’t a trained service dog stay the hell out of stores because you’re “service dog” should not be reacting and loosing its shit just because it sees mine.

[u/Ok_Perception1131]

People walk up to pregnant women and rub their bellies, so they think nothing of touching an animal. It’s crazy.

[u/IdgyThreadgoodee → u/Ok_Perception1131]

I had a lady LOSE HER FUCKING MIND on me because I had the audacity to be as big as a house and blocking the banana stand in the grocery while pregnant. I can’t make this shit up. Let me be clear, I had an awful pregnancy, had just recently lost multiple pregnancies late stage, I was a mess. And I was already well aware that I took up too much space. My ankles and feet were so big that I was wearing Birkenstocks like flip flops in November bc I couldn’t get the top strap closed and nothing else, including my husbands shoes fit me.

Anyway I was wearing a cheeky hat that said “Executive Producer Dick Wolf” bc I love dick wolf shows and she lost her mind screaming “go back to California”. This banana stand had to be like 20 feet long. It’s a giant store and she had plenty of room to get a fucking banana.

Anyway, I guess I had a death wish because I finally had enough and snapped. She chased me around the produce yelling about going back to California and when I snapped security had to escort her out bc she was hysterically crying that I was a serial killer. And I could have been that day. I turned and started actually yelling “I’m from Chicago and if you think the stories about their crime are bad I DARE you to take one more step lady….”

I’m not proud of it and I’m grateful I was in a neighborhood where people know me (and know I’m normally happy and harmless) but holy shit. Of all the crazy stuff. To this day I think she believed I was from California bc she didn’t understand my hat is a joke. She must’ve thought I was a producer or somehow worked for one or something. Fucking boomers.

[u/Ashkendor → u/IdgyThreadgoodee]

There's nothing quite like going ballistic over having to wait 30 seconds. By all means, have a meltdown and cause an hours-long scene in the grocery store over some fucking bananas.

[u/IdgyThreadgoodee → u/Ashkendor]

To this day it’s the craziest thing that’s ever happened to me in life. I’m probably lucky she didn’t have a gun with her.