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Dining Out

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Most Thursdays I meet a friend for lunch at a local restaurant. Today was no different. Towards the end of our meal, I excused myself to the restroom. While I was there, my friend overheard a patron in the booth behind us comment that he likes dogs, but not in restaurants. This brings today's topic to mind: going to a restaurant for food. Without fail, at some point, someone will make a comment about your service animal being inappropriate in a given location, usually a restaurant. This is showing some ignorance about service animals and access. Service animals are trained to be unobtrusive in restaurant settings. For instance, Hippo was laying on a blanket underneath the table. She wasn't begging, nor did she eliminate on the floor. She simply exhibited good manners. Hippo working on her tan I can't say it often enough, barring sterile environments, your service animal goes everywhere you go. And sometimes people will say ignorant, hurtful things about your dog a...
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Public Access #NoDogsAllowed

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Today we are going to the Las Vegas Highland Games. My spouse is from Clan MacDonald and this will be the first Games either of us have attended. It is being held in a public park, but there are some issues with our attendance. There are no dogs allowed, excepting for service animals. This brings us to an important part of responsibilities handlers have for public access: going where pets are NOT allowed. I'm planning to give Hippo an extra brushing before we leave. She's still shedding her winter coat, such as it is. Giving her extra brushes is a great bond securing activity, with the added benefit of her not needing to scratch or rub off the fur bits that are exfoliating/shedding at an accelerated rate. Hippo training in the mall Other at-home pre-gaming tasks we'll be doing are our bathroom walkies and packing the Just In Case bag. (JIC bag in all further postings and I may write a post exclusive to that topic at a later date.) Realistically Hippo may need to e...
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Standing Up and Shutting It Down

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This is a difficult post to write. I get riled up every time I think about this topic. There will come many times where you must stand up for your own space and access, AND when you'll need to protect your service dog. Some people think that it is acceptable to pet service dogs or to distract them because they are so cute/beautiful/well behaved. These people forget in their compulsion to pet all animals that your service animal is a working dog and shouldn't be distracted. It doesn't occur to them that in their pursuit of the pleasure of doggie softness they are preventing a working animal from doing their job. I know this wouldn't happen with a bomb or drug-detecting dog. But somehow some people think that it is acceptable to impose their affections on a service dog of unknown tasks. This has happened many times to Hippo and me. I haven't always been as strong in speaking up. It is hard, demanding people leave me and mine alone. Here are a few examples of how peo...
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Metaphors and Their Meanings

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So there was a reason for writing about feelings in my last post. In my research, I learned that it is common for people with PTSD to struggle with identifying and expressing emotions. It can be frustrating, feeling strong emotions but having an impairment in expressing them. I called this blog "Through the Clouds" because I have found that living with mental illness can be like trying to sight navigate a plane on a cloudy day. Sometimes it's difficult to see your hand in front of your face. Other times there is a break from the confusion and you can see for miles. (I also named it this because I am a 6' tall woman and still  get comments about the weather up here as an adult.) I think our emotions can play a part in the creation/nurturing of the clouds. Not to say there is any sort of morality or whatever about feelings. This isn't an anthropomorphizing of emotions. But our feelings, how we interpret them, and how we express them CAN hinder our movement through...
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Feelings Thoughts

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I used to think not expressing my emotions was a superpower. At one point in my childhood, I decided to not let people know when they hurt me or how much it hurt. I'm not sure if it was from abuse in the home or from the bullying in school. But either way, I made a (sub)conscious decision to "switch off" my emotions. Sexual harassment; being sent a note telling me to kill myself to better the middle school class; being threatened with violence for having too big a fake smile; being bullied by the same coworkers who were assigned with my 2-week orientation; no big deal. This is not a brag. It is actually very unfortunate that I didn't have a "safe haven" where I could be vulnerable and express emotions. The default emotions that I could  express were the extremes: anger, super happy/entertained, depressed, but interestingly not love. So, yeah. I was fairly stoic. It is VERY unhealthy to bottle up emotions or to avoid feeling them. It took a lot of therapy a...
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Public Access Issues

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Public access can be a logistical nightmare. When I go out with my service dog, I have to think about her comfort, bathrooming, grooming, location, weather... Her comfort is of concern because cold floors, or hot asphalt, can harm her. I carry a small blanket for her to sit upon when we go out for extended times and I know that the floor will be tile or concrete. And I bought her shoes, to protect her paws from temperatures hot enough to cook food. (I will repeat this often: If the ground is too hot for your bare feet, it is too hot for a dog's paws.) Bathrooming is important. Nobody wants a dog to eliminate in public places. I always make sure to bathroom before leaving home and look for likely emergency places for her to eliminate when we reach our destination. It's mortifying for Hippo, and it's kind of annoying to clean up waste from carpets, etc. Grooming is very important. Service dogs are ambassadors for other service dogs. And Hippo is also an ambassador for pitbull...
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So Many Questions, Only a Few Answered

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One of the things Hippo's trainer warned me about was that my having a disability would no longer be hidden. People would see a dog in a vest and take it as an invitation to ask questions and start conversations. I will admit to having grown a touch of social anxiety. It unnerves me, being the center of attention. Ironically though, I can hold long conversations with strangers and do all forms of public speaking easily, so long as it doesn't involve being vulnerable or talking about myself. So whenever people talk to me about Hippo, service dogs, fake service dogs, emotional support animals or anything in that general arena, I am perfectly comfortable engaging with complete strangers. The secret is that I am not the topic of conversation, its my service dog. This actually happened today. I was waiting in the military medical center's lab area, needing to get some labwork done. I had found a seat for myself, and situated Hippo laying down on the floor with her face toward...
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