Louise and I use a stroller to get her to and from the office. This allows us to ride on public transit (at least the Skytrain, if not busses) so that we can still get to work in a timely fashion.To say that a dog in a stroller gets people's attention would be a severe understatement.
I have grown accustomed to perfect strangers approaching me while I have the dog with me. However the tone often changes if Louise is in the stroller. Suddenly she goes from being a 'cute dog' to a 'spoiled dog'. People will often proclaim 'that's the ugliest baby I've ever seen!' expecting me to somehow find this hilariously funny. I'm notorious for telling jokes poorly - many of mine fail in the retelling. The one lesson I have learned from taking Louise into work is that the bad jokes get old really fast.
Don't get me wrong - clever or witty remarks are always fun. Yelling 'MEN IN BLACK' at me like I haven't made the connection myself already is less so. Last night on the way home, I was actually approached by someone who wanted to have a normal conversation with me about the dog stroller. This of course followed a woman who proclaimed that 'now she's seen everything' at which point I thought 'then why continue living?' but kept my thoughts to myself. But coming back to the other person, we were walking along the same sidewalk for several blocks so it was nice to hold a conversation where I wasn't expected to explain why a dog in a stroller wasn't automatically 'wrong.'
3 comments:
There are no words to describe how appropriate your blog was to me today. I just posted about how all my horrible coworkers degrade everything I say about the pugs with disgust. I wish people had more tact and were a little more open-minded!!!! And ps I think Louise is PERFECT! Oh and pps- I HATE the Men in Black comments too!!!!
Ditto for me. It is amazing how rude people can be. At least Louise doesn't know what they are saying :-) On the other hand, if she DID, maybe she could poop on them in response!
I have to say though, at least here I find about half of the people who approach me are not idiots. There are a lot of pug owners or fans, especially in our area where there are quite a few of the toy dog breeds. Louise isn't even the only dog with a stroller! So we are hardly a novelty to some.
Unfortunately, the downtown area (my area) attracts a lot of visitors each day. I suppose it could be a lot to digest for someone who's idea of a dog is that of a farm animal herding workmate.
The other thing is that I am really *REALLY* lucky to work at a place that actively promotes having a dog in the office each day. It gives the dogs (and staff) a chance to interact with others on a regular basis which is always good from a socialization point of view. I do get a little derision over the stroller from some, but it has always been in good fun and not mean spirited.
The other part of the equation here is of course me. Some days my skin is particularly thick and I barely register the comments from construction workers. Other days, it really gets to me. I think it's kind of obvious what kind of day yesterday was for me. :)
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