Non-service dog users probably don’t realize this, but service dog users usually don’t want to hear about how peoples’ dogs died. It is a common phenomenon, though. For some reason, a significant number of people see someone with a service dog and their first instinct is to tell the service dog handler about their dead dog. It is so common that patches for service dog vests saying “no dead dog stories” are increasing in popularity.
Most service dog users don’t like this. It isn’t a pleasant topic of conversation, and usually most of us don’t want a conversation at all– just let us go about our day like everyone else. The worst for me is when people tell me about their dead dogs including reasons that (to me!) aren’t good ones for putting their dogs to sleep.
Today was just one of those situations. We were waiting in the lobby of my doctor’s office and a woman came to sit next to me. She started telling me about all her previous dogs and how they all died. Most were not very good “reasons” to me, which made it even worse. The worst one? (Content warning, in case the warning wasn’t implied!) The dog she put to sleep because it kept getting ear infections….. But I am ever-polite, so I just pressed my lips together and nodded and tried to use my body language to indicate I wasn’t interested in continuing a conversation.
I was SO happy when my name was finally called!
I like my doctor, but it was a really quick visit! She gave me a referral to a nutritionist without much time to talk about anything else. I guess she was busy. Then she told me to wait in the lobby for an appointment.
As I sat in the lobby, I started to get more and more anxious– she said wait for an appointment, did that mean I didn’t get a choice in when my appointment was? Hestia was really helpful to me in calming me down. But it turns out my fears were correct– they just gave me an appointment at a time that didn’t work for me at all.
When I told them I couldn’t make it, they said I had to go home and call in to change the appointment! Ugh! I got home with about 15 minutes to spare before they closed, but luckily was able to change it. So I will be seeing the nutritionist in early December. Wish it were sooner!
