At Your Service

In the fall of 2003, my mom, who, when I moved to Illinois, had relocated to Maryland in order to be near her brother, fell and severely fractured her leg. The break was bad enough to require the implantation of extensive surgical rods and pins. When she got out of rehab, I flew out to Maryland to spend a couple of weeks and help her, literally, get back on her feet. There was no WAY I was going to leave Skater in any one's care in Illinois so I took him with me. As a young dog, he put on quite a few air miles while traveling to shows but, other than when he was shipped from California to Illinois, it had been a couple of years since he bore the tag, "live freight". I could no longer bear the thought of him traveling alone, in the belly of the plane; I wanted him with me at all times. So, I got him a service dog certification and, wearing his green vest, off to the airport we went.

I was somewhat nervous but, as with everything else, Skater was amazing. After eyeing the escalator with complete distrust, he figured he might as well get on and see what it was all about. Same with the security men and their "wands"; he was fine with being wanded, himself, but never took his eyes off them when they checked me for whatever contraband they were hunting that day. Even the bulkhead seats were a bit of a tight fit for Skater and me but he was a perfect gentleman who, although he did NOT care for the take off any more than I did, took the rest of the flight as if he'd been flying "like a person" all his life. I loved the fact that he was the first one "served" on that flight from St. Louis to Baltimore; the flight attendant brought him his own glass of water and bag of pretzels. As Skater was not the neatest drinker on paws, I did suggest that she trade his water from some nice neat ice cubes.

My cousin met us in Baltimore and we made the hour plus drive to Silver Spring, Skater sitting in the back seat and wondering what new adventure was about to take place. I sat in the front seat, wondering the same thing. But, we both knew that we would make that journey together and it would all be okay.