For just over three years now, I've had my own apartment. The day I moved in is also the day I met my best friend and his beautiful Golden Retriever/Collie mix named Yanni. Yanni would, in my opinion, would be a great companion to anyone. Yanni is so much more to Chandler on so many levels though! You see, Yanni is a Service Dog.
I won't bore you with what a Service Dog can do, because I think we are all at least vaguely familiar with what a Service Dog is, and what they can be trained to do. Besides, that's not really my point anyway. In the time that I've lived here, I've become very close with Chandler and Yanni. In watching them on an almost daily basis, I am constantly astounded by the relationship they have developed over the past five years. There are times when Chandler will need something picked up off the floor, and before he can even say anything to Yanni, Yanni is right there to pick it up without missing a beat. In my opinion, and I think in Chandler's as well, Yanni has been a lifesaver on a lot of levels many, many, many times.
Unfortunately, I have also been witness to people in my building being very knit picky and disrespectful when it comes to these two. One minute everybody loves Yanni, and is so in awe of what Yanni is capable of doing, and the next there are five or six people sitting down in the lobby feeling the need to have a "bash Chandler and Yanni powwow". Whenever they decide to have a powwow, the main topic is usually the fact that Yanni is sometimes off his leash for short periods of time.
There are SEVERAL REASONS why I think that them having their little powwow on this subject is COMPLETELY WRONG! First of all, there is nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, in our lease pertaining specifically to service animals. On the contrary, there is a huge section pertaining to pets, and pet roles. Now, last time I checked, according to the ADA which went into affect in 1990, Service Dogs are not pets, they never have been, and they never will be! Therefore, any rules that apply to the "pets" in the building do not apply to Yanni. Furthermore, if my building management is so hell-bent on making sure that Service Dogs follow a specific rules within the building, then they damn well better put it in the lease.
Secondly, after living here for over three years, I could give property management several examples of other dogs behaved much worse on a consistent basis then Yanni would ever think about behaving! Do any of those people ever get in trouble? Hell no! Why? I'm not really sure why, but as I said in the beginning people around here seem to be doing a lot of knit picking when it comes to them, and it doesn't really seem fair. If you expect one dog to behave a certain way, then I really truly believe that you should expect all of the dogs in the building to behave exactly the same way, and when they're not, their owners should be punished in exactly the same fashion. Sadly and sickeningly, to my knowledge, that doesn't happen.
Thirdly, Chandler has verbal permission from the owner of the agency who trained Yanni that Yanni can work on or off the leash as long as Chandler has control over him in that given situation. Now, if Chandler was not capable of handling Yanni off the leash, do you really think that Karen, the owner of the agency would have given Chandler permission to work with him off the leash? I don't. In fact, I am almost 100% positive that she wouldn't have. If she did, and Chandler and Yanni weren't ready to work together off the leash, don't you think that she would be setting herself up for some sort of lawsuit at some point? Duh, it doesn't take a brain surgeon, or at least I don't think it does. Around here though, who the hell knows, and sometimes why would you want to?
Lastly, and probably what bothers me the most is the fact that we're all supposed to be adults around here but yet nobody can be adult enough to bring these problems, issues, concerns, what ever you want to call them directly to Chandler's attention. Instead, they talked amongst themselves, and then take it to management. If they happen to see Chandler while they're doing it, they make a whole bunch of empty threats, but won't treat him like the adult that he is. Why? How old are we? Last time I checked, we weren't in grade school anymore and we didn't need to play the tattletale game. It would be a different story if none of these people knew who Chandler was, and they were afraid of what his reaction might be. Everyone around here knows who Chandler is, and most of them should know that if they bring an issue to Chandler's attention like the adults that they're supposed to be acting like, he will be more than happy to address it with them, and then do his best to correct the problem in the future. I'm not exactly sure what to think at this point except for this: I really truly feel like they are a bunch of cowards who have absolutely no backbone, and nothing better to do.
Now, some of you who read this may be thinking that with that last statement I just hit the nail right on the head, and therefore, I just need to ignore it, and let them be cowards all by themselves. Well, if you are thinking that, objectively, you would be right. However, it is very, very, very, very difficult for me to put my emotions aside with a situation like this. I love them both dearly, and would do anything for them! In no way shape or form do either of them deserve to be treated like this! They deserve so much more, and so much better! However, getting more is much easier said than done. There isn't an abundance of accessible housing around here, so sometimes you have to take what you can get even if that comes along with it, in my opinion, is harassment.
So, to all of you who feel like having powwows about things you know nothing about, I pray to the good Lord that you are never in a situation like this because if you are I'm going to sit back and laugh and do nothing about it. It will serve the each and every one of you right! One more point to all you before I wrap this up. When I get my dog, you better sure as hell hope that I never find out that you're having powwows about us, because if I do, all of you who are involved, are going to wish like hell you never knew who I was! I really truly hope that each and every one of you can get up in the morning and look at yourselves in the mirror and like what you see, because I know I sure couldn't!