I was coming from the restroom heading for my first break when I saw this big man with a little brown dog in the kiddie seat of his shopping cart. For those of you not from this country – since the Americans with Disabilities Act it isn’t all that strange to see animals in the store. You’d expect the occasional “seeing eye” dog to assist a blind person (though as dogs can’t read and labels aren’t generally Braille they’d better have some human assistance as well), and I’ve seen one dog intended to provide mobility assistance. But the most common are actually “therapy dogs” for people prone to panic attacks and whatnot. Obviously this dog wasn’t in either of the first two categories, so I presumed it was another therapy dog. It had a black kerchief with a paw print on it around its neck and some sort of harness with a red metallic tag on it on the back. I decided based on the kerchief it must be male, so I said “Cute little guy” as I passed in the other direction.
Here in Ohio you are not allowed to smoke in any place of business (unless the business primarily sells tobacco) or even within 20 feet (a little over 6 meters) of any of the doors, so there is a spot on the side of the building where we go for our breaks. I noticed an orange and black Harley Davidson (in a flame design) parked just around the corner of the adjacent building (a shoe store) and was thinking that wasn’t a great place to park … some people come around that corner pretty quick. Fortunately it was Sunday and the day after Independence Day, so there wasn’t really any traffic.
About 10 minutes later, who do I see walking over but that big man and his little dog. I make a comment along the lines of “So he’s a biker dog!” and we chat for a while about how rare it is for dogs to ride motorcycles and so forth. I find out that his name is Max (supposedly Maximus Aurelius after a character in the movie Gladiator, but Wikipedia says Maximus and Aurelius were two separate characters), that the red metallic tag reads “Emotional support animal” as expected, that Max has 4 siblings but he’s the only one who likes to ride.
I never asked the man’s name, but he says he’s a former cop who was forced to shoot someone in self-defense and dealing with that is why he has a support animal. I make a comment that shooting someone in self-defense isn’t exactly limited to cops, but I’m not a therapist so I figure I’m better off not pursuing that further.
Anyway, Max rides in a chest carrier though apparently he’ll rest his paws on the gas tank. He used to have a pair of “doggles” (doggie goggles) from a company in California of that name but really wasn’t fond of them and had knocked them off somewhere – he had another set coming. I make a comment that I do work for the store, but as long as an animal is well-behaved it’s not my business to verify whether or not they are service animals. (And yes, Max was very well-behaved.)
Obviously I last saw Max in his carrier headed for wherever, and I wish them both well.
