Saturday, October 29, 2011

A Day In the Service Dog / Advocate Life . . .

It's late Friday morning and we're rushing to Joanne's eye exam. She got to bed last night a bit late and overslept and we heard this morning that we're due for 6-10" of snow which will make our weekend plans to camp far less appealing -- so she's a bit distracted and tense and a lot hurried.

We rush into the building.  She doesn't do the okay-Maeve-you're-going-to-work-now ritual of having me sit before we go in and again as soon as we get in.  I figure this means I'm okay to socialize. The doctor comes out the moment we get into the waiting room and we notice each other right away.  I'm sure he wants to meet me so I head for him. Joanne is not on the same page. She notices that he appears to be descended from a ethnic group that may not be in favor of service dogs and she interprets the look on his face to be disapproving.  I disagree. We have a taut leash moment. Within moments he's not only asking about me, but also about details of Joanne's disability. She's not happy.

Maeve is a psychiatric service dog for Joanne Shortell and mental health advocate for all people with psychiatric disabilities. Maeve's goal is to become the Johnny Appleseed of emotional support animals and psychiatric service dogs.

Copyright Joanne Shortell 2010-2011