Memory Lane

Reading the topic of "reactions" for next month's Assistance Dog Carnival being held at The Trouble is Me...reminded me of a story that happened when I was working James.  Not sure if this will end up being my carnival post or not, have to see what happens in the next month or what other things I think about as my mind ruminates on this topic, but I wanted to put this story down before it sank back into the recesses of my brain.

In October 2005, Li and I took a car trip to St. Louis to watch the NADAC Championships that year and to do some site seeing.  One of the adventures we had on that trip involved a visit to the Missouri, St. Louis Zoo.  On that trip, I, of course, had James with me as my partner and per usual James came along when we went to visit the zoo that day.  James had, over the course of his lifetime, been to many zoos, animal parks and aquariums.  Anytime we went to a place that had captive wildlife, I was very careful to watch the zoo animal's reactions to James and if the animals seemed in any way uncomfortable, I would leave that exhibit so as not to stress the animals further with the presence of a dog.  James was always his usual phlegmatic self in the animal exhibit areas, he never ever had a negative reaction, he just took the entire experience in stride as was his usual way of going about life.

On this particular trip, as I said, we went to the St Louis Zoo.  The zoo staff knew that I had a service dog in the park, and the only limitation they had given me was not to take James in the aviary as not to stress the birds.  I of course respected that and did not take James anywhere near the aviary exhibits.  The way that the zoo had structured their big cat exhibits was fairly interesting and I think a very good way to allow the animals to feel safe yet still allow the park goers to enjoy the magnificence of the cats.  What they had done was have the big cat's enclosures be set in a pit type set up well below ground level, so that people could walk up to the fence and see the cats in their enclosure without being able to interact with them.  On certain exhibits, such as the leopard exhibits, the leopards were also in an enclouser well below the viewer's level, but as an added safety feature since these cats can leap very big spances, they had chain link as a cap to the enclouser that went above the viewer's level probably 10-15' higher than the viewer. 

Li, James and I had stopped to see the lion and lionesses first, and these animals paid no mind that there was a dog above them at all.  They were napping and lounging seeming to be unbothered by anything or anyone around them.  The next exhibit enclosure was for the snow lepeord.  As we were walking to the fence so we could look down on the lepeord, about 5' from the fence all of the sudden the cat leaped from ground level flying up at us, growling, making Li, me and all the other people jump about 3' in surprise and latched onto the chain link above us.  Even with this huge, massive, upset cat no more than 5' away coming essentially out of nowhere, James just stood there, saying, "Yup, ok, this is all in a day's work, what else do you have for me to do?"  Of course, seeing how upset the cat was, we immediately retreated and walked to an entirely different part of the zoo as not to further stress the cat or any other cats.

James' reaction to the cat was pretty typical for his reactions to just about anything unusual or out of the ordinary when he was working.  Nothing really ever surprised him or shook his nerves, even things that made me jump!  The cat's reaction was rather unnerving, but probably also typical for a big predator cat when smelling a dog.  That being said in most zoo type situations I took James into, the vast majority of animals seemed to have no reaction to James.  Again like I said I made every attempt when in such situations to be cognizent of how the animals we were viewing were reacting to a dog in their presences and immediately left the area if any animal seemed stress or to be reacting negitavely and I always informed the zoo staff at the ticket desk that I had a service dog with me and asked if they had any specific rules for the safety of myself, my dog and the exhibit animals. 

Having James with me as my service dog in such setting allowed me to enjoy the experience with less stress and more support through his tasks, allowing me to make the experience successful for me and the people I was with.  While I do think that in such situations, a service dog handler needs to take extra precautions to ensure the safety of not only their teammate, but also the captive animals involved, I do not think that one should say that no service dog is proper in a zoo setting.  My feeling is that as long as you make the zoo staff aware, you heed their requests, you are cognizent of your surroundings to the best of your ability and you are cognizent of your dog and his or her reactions, going to a place like a zoo can be a very successful experience for all involved.