Animal Abuser

According to a rude self-righteous bitch at Comfest this last weekend I'm an animal abuser. I have a German Shepherd Service Dog, I mentioned him in a previous post, Scout. He's 2yrs old and quite a handsome eager boy. I use a fishing line type of leash and have him attached to my power wheelchair. If I give him too much lead on his leash, he will walk right in front of me and get his toes run over. So I keep it short, but long enough for him to maneuver around me when I turn etc...I've learned to go slowly and he's adapted his gait to feel for the front wheels and kind of determine where I'm going.

Even now, if he gets excited and doesn't pay attention, he'll get his toes run over. Even if I lengthen the lead, he pulls ahead instead of further to the side of the chair. He is simply young and eager to pull ahead to see what therhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gife is to see.

Scout loves people and dogs and generally getting out with me. Comfest was a big exciting day for him.

I gave you the back story to better explain what happened at . This is a festival of hippies that has been going on for 25 or more years here in Ohio. Lots of paraphernalia, tie-dye shirts, political organizations and MUsiC Galore. All in all a very festive event.

So my partner, Scout and myself are wandering around at Comfest checking out the goods and we approach a jewelry booth. There's a woman in the booth, in the back sitting on a tall stool. The kind most artists use in their booths at art fairs. As I approach the booth, she yells to me "you're running over his toes", I looked up as if to say "what?" and she repeated her accusation. I replied that I was not running over his toes and that he was fine. She replied "I don't think so", I looked at her and said " he's fine if he gets run over, it's his problem" and she replied (never getting off of her stool) "I don't think so, he needs more leash". At which point I looked at my partner and said "let's leave" to which the woman (still on her stool) replied "you better leave, I'm big into animal rights" to which my partner replied "you're an asshole".

The woman never left her stool. Perhaps it looked to her like his toes were getting run over, rest assured they weren't. What gets me so hot when I think about this is that the woman approached the entire situation badly. She accused me without even getting up off of her ass to check out the situation more closely. Did she feel some sort of authority over me because I'm in a wheelchair??

That's what I'm guessing, that she felt she could pick on me because she viewed me as lesser than. Perhaps I'm all wrong here, but I got that vibe from her.

Have you ever met someone who immediately starts talking to you as if they're your parent? I think these people probably treat everyone they encounter in a condescending manner, but I also think as people in wheelchairs we attract them.