*Note*

This message is not meant to hurt feelings or point fingers. The problems I site here happen in many places here and out town and with a whole, lot, of people!

I, am not upset with anyone.

The experience yesterday afternoon rattled me and is the inspiration for the following piece.

Thanks for reading the below.

May Harmony Find Us.

Blessid Be.

Good morning, I hope all is well.

Here, the coffee is hot. The weather is too, but we’ve lots of loving when it’s appropriate from Team Blue.

Speaking of appropriate and inappropriate engagements with a Guide Dog. The Seeing Eye has developed a flyer that tells in good detail about the correct and incorrect things to do. I requested print copies from The Seeing Eye, and they graciously sent me some. Guess what? I’ve not received them. Or the correct thing to say is that they have not been given to me. The envelope would’ve been too big for the mailbox, so who knows where they are.

Well, that does not deter me. I know lots of people who live here and communicate with others will read and chat about this and maybe someone with a printer will print a few and post them around. One never knows. This is the best I can do and so before I lose my cool when being sent unawares for a ride on the elevator I’d ask you all to read this.

https://seeingeye.org/access-advocacy/guide-dog-at-work/

Thanks, from Team Blue who says, “Keep your nose to the ground and your tail waving at the sky.”

PS. Blue has been over handled by others lately. He is having behavioral issues and getting in trouble because of it. So, I must really ask people to keep their hands off and do not speak to him at all or call his name until you have cleared it with me. When you mess with any “Service Animal” you are interfering with their work. It especially troubles me to see how others behave with the “alert or PSTD dogs” here.

Getting back to me and blue, put simply the problem is, if I let Blue do something in the chat room or laundry room or out by the creek and then take him to a five-star eatery and hotel for a convention he is going to expect to be allowed to behave that same way there. I cannot say to him, ‘Now Blue, we don’t behave like that here. Wait till we get home to be silly.”

I’m not sure how this has escalated of late, but if people don’t stop, I’m going to have no choice but to deny privilege with him. I don’t want to do it but I’m getting ready to travel to a training center where he is going to need to behave well because there are a lot of public common areas we will be in daily. I’ve also been speaking with the Virginia State Affiliate about my possibly attending their convention in November. This means yet more traveling and more public areas for Blue. Blue getting in trouble and me denying privilege is no fun for any of us, so please? Be respectful.

Read the information I am providing here and pass it on. It is the most loving and supportive thing you can do for the guide dog owner handlers in your life.

❤️🦮

walking along
speaking in a crowd to a friend
couldn’t hear very well
got separated in the end
not sure where I was I trusted my dog
who had one thing in mind
the five o’clock kibble at home
when the elevator was open
by a well-meaning invisible silent friend
Blue decided to put the indecision to an end
he went forward as people were coming from behind
into the elevator
he was ready to ride
unknown to me
this is what was happening quick too fast for my brain to process
before I knew it
were on our way
my heart leapt into my throat
I started to shake
where was I going
how did things happen this way
Blue turned to the door
sneezed a mighty disapproving sneeze
that was the doggy version of
Mother Fucker Please?
sorry for the language
sometimes there’s nothing else
that’s just how
Team Blue felt
I went home
fast hoping praying no one would stop us on the way
got inside
crumpled to the floor
arms around my dog
crying
don’t know how long I stayed that way
finally a lick from Blue brought me back to earth
I got up fed him
decided not to make things worse
got my head together
now writing to you
please take heed
this really won’t do
the appropriate thing is
‘how can I help you?’

When help is not helpful a poem by Patty L. Fletcher. Bristol VA patty.volunteer1

Patty L. Fletcher – Author and Content Promoter.

About Patty L. Fletcher

Updated November 2024

Patty L. Fletcher is a woman of passion and exploration.

She studies the art of manifestation and is a seeker of knowledge and the wisdom to know what to do with it when it’s learned.

To learn more visit: https://pattysworlds.com/about/

If you have made mistakes, even serious mistakes, you may have a fresh start from any moment you choose, for this thing we call ‘failure’ is not the falling down, but the staying down.

Mary Pickford