Fancy Running Into You Here

I’ve had my guide dog, Chase, for nearly eleven months now.  In that time, we have never run into (literally or figuratively) another guide dog team.  That includes ten months of riding BART trains daily and an occasional bus ride.

On Saturday, the planets (or at least the Labrador retrievers) aligned. 

Chase and I got on the bus in Concord and someone was sitting in our side-facing, reserved-for-the-disabled seat.  He didn’t move.  So, Chase and I made our way to a front-facing seat next to him.  Someone commented that our dogs looked exactly alike.

I said, “Oh, you have a guide dog?”   His black Lab was hiding under the seat between his feet.  He said, “Yes, you too?” 

We both had gotten our dogs from Guide Dogs for the Blind.  He got his in September 2012.  I got mine in July 2013.

Chase normally gets really excited when he sees another dog.  But he just ignored the other guide.  The other guide dog handler said his dog, Max, usually barks at other dogs.  But he ignored Chase.  Not a sniff.  Not a tail wag between them.  Just two dogs lying on the floor of a bus, waiting to do their jobs.

I chalked it up to professional courtesy.