Everybody Loves a Service Dog

Pretty much everyone loves dogs.  It is a fact that very few people can resist the face of a cute puppy when seen on the street.  Now, we believe this cuteness factor is heightened when this dog is a service dog.  1) It’s cute 2) It has an outfit 3) It has a job 4) It can wear cute things like hats or shoes (in addition to the vest)  People stare and whisper constantly about how cute Secret Agent Puppy is.  Let’s be real, he kinda has a fan club on campus.  Our class (and professors) gets excited over the simplest things such as him wearing a raincoat, or him wearing a holiday themed bandana.  We aren’t trying to say that he isn’t cute, what we are saying is that it is unbelievable how many people fall in love with this dog even if they have never met him.

People on campus LOVE him and when we say love, we mean LOVE.  The grumpiest of professors smile brightly when they see him walk into class.  They get even more excited when they get to see him perform a task, or get to pet him.  Some professors have practically adopted him.  He has acted as a TA, following the professor around the room or sitting next to their podiums during breaks.  Secret Agent Puppy knows that he is adorable and milks that for all it’s worth.  Professors who don’t know who he, or Nemo are, stop and stare when they pass by on campus.  Also, it’s not like he is hiding, he is on campus for class 4 days a week and stays most weekends.   

Classmates become overjoyed when they see him walk into the room.  No one cares when Nemo arrives to class.  They see the dog and get excited.  They know that they can’t say hi, distract him, but you still see their faces light up when he enters a room.  When ever he does something cute there are multiple “awwws” heard in the room.  Whenever he is dressed up, the phones come out and he is featured on multiple snapchats and instagrams.  If we are being honest, he is probably on more than we realize since people have taken his picture without Nemo’s knowledge or consent.  He is being featured almost everywhere possible.  In every class picture displaying a successful lab activity, or school activity.  When he isn’t immediately put into the front of a picture, people start to go “where’s the dog.”  They see him as a fellow classmate and strongly believe that he earns his spot in cohort pictures. 

Workers in the dining hall are constantly confused when they see a dog walk in.  Almost every worker there has stopped what they were doing to watch Secret Agent Puppy pass by, or they have randomly walked past the table our group is sitting at.  They aren’t exactly discrete as they lean over counters or stop cleaning a table top to watch him turn the corner.  They all have faces that screams “look at that cute dog.” 

           

People in the community get simultaneously excited and confused when they see Secret Agent Puppy walking around.  They 1) are confused why they can’t take their dog around into various establishments and 2) wondering why he is so cute.  People have wandered up to the two of us and questioned if he has a right to be there.  There is almost always the chorus of “Look at the blind girl” and “He is so cute.”  Simply put, Nemo is just what Secret Agent Puppy is attached to.  She isn’t seen as a real person, just the person who brings in the dog. 

Now, we get to the part that we can’t get over.  Secret Agent Puppy is frequently featured on our twitter.  Being full time college students makes it difficult for us to handle school, clinicals, medical, the blog and our personal lives.  This means that sometimes we do not get to post on social media as much as we would like to.  However, we decided that we needed to include one picture on twitter, because we thought it was adorable (and still do).  We frequently study to Disney music since we are 5 year olds at heart.  The song “Reflection” from Mulan came on and we both witnessed something that we had never seen Secret Agent Puppy do.  He laid down, put his head against the laptop and started falling asleep cuddling with the laptop.  Naturally, we tested this multiple times and the phenomenon happened again and again.  He would go from bouncing off the walls to curled up cuddling with the laptop.  So we took a picture and posted it to twitter.  Tremors then decided to tag the voice of Mulan (Nemo’s idol) in the tweet.  A few hours later while we were completing homework we both received a notification that proves how much people love service dogs (at least in our minds).  The voice of Mulan liked our tweet, so naturally after we stopped freaking out, we knew that no matter who they are, no one can resist the cuteness of a service dog. 

Simply put, people love dogs.  They bring many people joy and seeing a dog with a job brings any more.   No matter where he goes he always makes friends and goes on an adventure.  Service dogs bring more than there their owner’s joy, they bring joy to everyone they meet. 

WE BELIEVE IN YOU!

-NEMO, TREMORS AND SECRET AGENT PUPPY