This email came to me on a day that I needed it most.
There are times during this past year where I feel exhausted, wondering if I can continue to keep this up, and for how long. All my focus, all my energy has been (almost) solely directed towards building Stiggy’s Dogs. I was reeling in my selfishness and pity one night, when I read this email from Jamey.
Jamey had been paired with a Stiggys Dog Tiger, for three months now. Listen in his words as he explains the bond between them.
I laughed and cried as I read this, cleansing my soul and gaining another new prescriptive.

Toy R Us   Tiger and Jamey

With my two nieces birthday’s approaching (one on the 24th of November and one on the 5th of December), it was time to go to Toys R Us and buy birthday gifts for girls. It wasn’t that simple:

1. It was the beginning of the holiday shopping season,

2. Our son was with us and his birthday is on the 27th of November (so, he thinks we have to get his presents too), and

3. We were shopping for girls.

I knew Cooper would be hard to handle and I knew there would a large busy crowd. Now, with Tiger’s new NC state service dog certification tag and the corresponding card for my wallet, I NEEDED him to go and I had the firepower to shoot down any attempts to stop us (although I knew it most likely not happen, my paranoia was calmed by the certification tag and card). So, we loaded up the car and took off for Toys R Us.

We got there and he was SUPER excited because his Mom was with us (he loves women). So, I let Shawna and Cooper go in while Tiger and I took a walk in the parking lot and around to the grassy area beside of the store. He used the bathroom and we did some attention circles until he got on track. We then met up with Shawna and Cooper in the store and started shopping. I let Shawna and Cooper start off while Tiger and I followed. He made a couple sniffs and small pulls towards stuffed animals, so I corrected and sat him down and calmed him with ear rubs and kisses… we then took off again. We went to the girl’s isle (the isles were very close together and cramped), there were a few people in that isle already. We had already gotten some “oohs” and “ahhs” and smiles from the employees… I had overheard a few parents telling their children, “Look, that’s a service dog…”

With the rude holiday shoppers out… the ones that make my issues worse… the ones that don’t move with you in the isle… Tiger took care of that for me. In a way, not on purpose in anyway… he moved them for me. He made a path and I followed it. When things became too much for me; when normally I would find an empty isle and hide (probably looking like a weirdo)… this time I took him to an empty isle sat him down, me kneeling next to him and I acted as if I was petting and calming him down (and he was calming me down… and I didn’t look like such a freak, just a guy petting his service dog).

At some point during the madness, Shawna and I were still searching for this Barbie B-Smart Laptop and couldn’t find it when what looked like a manager came up to us and asked if he was a service dog, but she had directed the question at Shawna… I froze for a second, because this was the confrontation I had feared, before I realized that she had looked around to see his Good Citizenship patch I was a few seconds away from pulling out my ninja star (NC service dog certification card) and throwing it at her… not really, but I was fumbling with my wallet. No matter, she just saw the patch and vest and said that it gets her excited to see service dogs, and that she thought it was a great thing.

Anyway, we found the Barbie B-Smart Laptop and had the other gift in hand with two things Cooper put in the kart for himself and we were on our way out. As we paid, Tiger took it upon himself to lay down, so I knew it was taking a lot out of him too. We loaded up in the car and headed to Home Depot for a quick routine in-and-out for filters…….