june 5 2023

wanting to get free of the  chaos of crazy acres, i accepted an invite from a 76 year old recipient in tennassee... fully expecting to be sipping tea in  the shade of the trees before nap time....... what i did not expect was to be fending off more drinks, while singing broadway songs at a piano bar. slipping treats to her service dog under the piano at 11PM.  .  i , with my walker , and she with her dog, we settled right in at the piano bar..... With her skarf around my neck to "get dressed up" we went to nashville's  rendition of a senior drop in center.. circled by classmates and other old friends, drinks kept coming--- fortunately  as a drinker of  "non" drinks , i became the designated driver as i wondered how i would find my way home if there was no button on the car to push that said  "go home" and how would i explain to the police we were just sleeping in the car  with a dog....until we found the way home/-- i have not had that kind of problem since college days....

point being--- she  was out --- having a grand time. She absolutely could not walk without that dog --- minus the dog she would have either a wheelchair or 2 crutches to get in and out of the car... and i guarantee  the cafe would have been nice to her.... officially nice... but with that dog, she was a celebrity- or rather, the dog was, as the first thing the waitress did was to bring a bowl of water and crawl  hands and knees under the piano to give it to the dog.    I sat thinking.....what a 1000% difference one dog has made in this person's life. and we have put out over 200 before i retired.  More people should train danes for this work... they are super at it.

 

 The constant drag of "mobility equipment" like a chair prevents many people from getting out in the first place... It is not just the cumbersome drag of equipment...... but if you  ever have been in a wheelchair, the slow meandering progress of someone else pushing you can drive you nutty.  Now because of that... and because many of our people who can walk with a dog , often land in a chair temporarily . I tried to have every “walker dog” know how to pull a wheelchair. To that end, I was in Costco one day—in a chair—with a dog learning to pull a little faster--- which got to be kinda fun—until management came over.  I bet I am the only person ever to be thrown out of Costco --- for speeding.