Claren can get it

Google or the Washington Post is letting me down, but Mom confirms this article did appear a while back, before I got Claren. It told about a gal and her service dog.

As I recall it started off in a local Starbucks where the dog was getting the woman's money to pay for her coffee. There was a line, and what shocked me as I read it was that no one helped her as the dog dropped the change or whatever. Just from a selfish standpoint of moving things along.

This week at work they locked down the building. We have to use our passed to open the doors 24/7 instead of just during off hours. The company has been quite cool about it. It brought in someone to adjust the one door that has a pass reader on one side of the frame and the door opener on the other side. Now it stays open long enough for me to touch the pass reader, let go of Claren, encourage to hit the door button, go through and call her through.

Anyway, I was thinking about how no one seemed to help that gal with the dog in the Starbucks because I dropped my pass in front of a door I had just opened. Claren was well on her way to grabbing it but was a little spooked by the closing door. After she saw it was not going to smack her in the butt, she started to pick up my pass.

But then this gal came over from where she was having lunch and, ignoring my "she'll get it," picked up my pass.

I would have rather Claren got it -- makes her feel useful and it is pretty fun to see. But what more can I say? I guess I could say: "Please, don't get it; she needs practice." I met the gal from the Starbucks once I got Claren and suspect she did say this. Or something about Independence. That's fine if you want to go that way, but it is too much of a mouthful for me, and I don't really want to turn down help.

When you think about it is pretty amazing that someone would bother to get up and walk 10 feet to help someone who already has some help, albeit not the fastest.

Lest Claren get the idea that cute gals will always come to our aid, I threw my pass down when we were inside and alone. She got it.