Unexpected Conversations

              I had an interesting run in with a person in a restroom while I was on vacation. I walk in like any normal person would and proceeded to head into the restroom. While I was walking into a stall a woman looks at me and says. I think you should leave your dog out of the restrooms. I said she is medical alert dog and goes everywhere with me including the restrooms. She turns he nose up at me and huffs. She then replies that dogs are dirty and have no place being in a restroom no matter if they are service animal or not. I told her that the federal laws provide me access to these places. She then turns to me and says I have a dog allergy. I then replied that the federal laws does not consider allergies as a reason for me not to use a restroom. The woman huffs again. I said look you have no idea what it is like for me before I got my service animal. She gave me my life back and I do take this right very seriously. I said I would not have her unless I really needed her. She then does not reply right away, but then says I can see your point that if you do need it then using it can be a good thing. I told her I know I don't appear to have a disability but not all medical problems are obvious. The woman then said to me she had never really thought about it before but that made sense. I then excused myself so I could use the restroom.

               I am not a fan of dealing with difficult people like that woman, but at least in the end hopefully she will think about some of the things that I had to say. I am hoping that trying to educate people maybe next time she will approach a service dog team with more respect. I know I always get the strangest looks when I go to the bathroom with my service animal and it does make for interesting conversation most of the time, but I was not expecting such a hostile response to having my service dog with me. Most of the time people have general questions and I hoping that this does not happen again. I prefer to be able to go to the restroom like any normal person would.