General Discussion

I am a disabled veteran with a medically-trained service dog. He goes everywhere with me. He IS a very charming and handsome guy (a Red Labrador Retriever) and people are always approaching me. He has no less than SEVEN tags on his blue vest that identify him as a service dog, two that say "DO NOT PET." And yet I still get these maga people coming up to me and wanting to pet him. (I was told long ago by the agency that trained him that I am a goodwill ambassador for every other service dog and handler out there and I try to keep that in mind for the good of our community.) But, it tries my patience when I have to explain this to these dimwits over and over that he is not a pet, he is a medical service dog and he has an important job - focusing his laser like attention on ME. Any distraction from that could be disastrous for me. They look at me like I'm being unreasonable. I remain polite. However since the shutdown began, I have lost my cool with these people and have started to ask them if English is their first language and of so, are they literate. One woman became very indignant with me and said of course she was literate. I then pointed to the "DO NOT PET" signs and asked her to read them out loud to me. That shut her up quick. I fear my patience is reaching its limit.