October 18, 2011

The pain of missing Delsie seems to be a bit easier today. I don't know if that is because Barkley and I seem to be bonding or I heard from my dad that Delsie is doing fine. She actually is able to climb the stairs and sleeps by him.

Dels and I have so many memories together. We have traveled to flown to CA twice, went on a trip to CO, vacationed in Canada twice, road trips to Chicago too many times to count, flew to FL a ton and camped in MI. Vacations have been nothing but positive with Delsie by my side. Conversations with complete strangers have been so much richer. Even though there are times that I want to be invisible. The confidence she has brought to my life has been amazing. I am willing to take risks and do things that I would have never have done by myself. I LOVE flying but flying with Delsie is the best- not to mention a walking billboard for CPL.

Fortunately, I haven't encountered too many obstacles when traveling with Delsie. She is so go-with-the-flow: from the time security escorted us on the tarmac to do her business while we were flying to CA to sleeping in a jeep when camping, she has done it all. She has been such a trooper- I only hope that Barkley and I will have as much fun together.

As much traveling we have done, you would think I would have a lot of challenges - I don't. Most of the unpleasant situations have been caused by ignorance. Usually, when I kindly educate them, the circumstance is resolved and no damage has been done. A story that will go down in the books is one of my trips when I was flying by myself. The airline always bumps me to the bulk head and bends over backward to make it a pleasant experience for us. On this particular flight there was a mom, dad and young girl seated in the aisle across from me. This man threw a fit and asked the flight attendant why I had a dog on the plane. I wanted him to ask me so I said, "sir, she is my service dog. I have a disability and with her I am able to do things I wouldn't be able to do if she weren't in my life." It was obvious this guy woke up on the wrong side of the bed that morning. He wouldn't look at me but loudly said to that flight attendant, "WE ARE NOT FLYING WITH THAT DOG" At this point, his argumentative spirit was holding up the entire plane. The flight attendant must've left and got the costumer rep from the airline...it was quite the scene. I said to the rep that I would move to another seat with Delsie. He said, "You are staying right there" he proceeded to tell the man that I was not moving and that I had the legal rights to fly on the plane and if he wanted too, he would place his family on another flight later that day. When it was settled, a guy in first class came back and said, "Honey, you take my seat." All in all, people are so kind.

And it was so fun sitting in first class...