Pets

I adopted Rosemary in summer of 2017, before my sophomore year of college, when she was likely two years old. it was very important to me that my service dog be adopted from a shelter, though there weren't any big service dog organizations in the area that would train a dog for what I needed without me being a veteran, anyway. I worked with private trainers that helped find the right dog for me; not every dog is a good fit for this kind of work. when they found her, her name was Wendy, and she had just given birth to a litter of puppies. after seeing how gentle and sweet she was with them, it was clear to my trainers that she was the perfect fit.

Rosemary wasn't always the most patient when on the job, wanting to be the first into the building when I open a door or lying down if we were standing in the same spot for too long. she was good at tucking, but if there was enough space for her to sprawl out, she'd take the opportunity. I was really self-conscious about that after seeing how viscious online service dog communities are about sniffing out "fakes." at the end of the day, though, service dogs aren't robots, and her little quirks never made her bad at her job. without her, I would've had to walk out on a lot more classes than I did. she kept me calm when nothing else would, and I'm very thankful for that. beyond her tasks, I often just felt unsafe out in the world, and having someone to come with me made everything a little less scary.

Rosemary is, by far, the most tolerant dog I have ever met. you can grab her snout and shake her face around, mess with her paws, or stretch the extra skin she has on the sides of her face, and the most she will do if she doesn't like something is paw at you or use her mouth to push you away. she's gotten noisier with age, but I think the number of times she's barked is still under thirty, and when she does, it's never more than one or two at a time. when she was younger, she would play by ripping all the stuffing out of her plushies. she just let go of something if I tried to play tug-of-war with her, so I used my arm or my foot to play games like that, because she never bit hard enough to hurt me. she still loves running around all over the place on an open field, chasing any ball I throw but never actually picking it up to bring it back to me.

I continued to take Rosemary to classes with me throughout college, but I gradually stopped taking her with me to other places, like the grocery store or therapy. at first, it wasn't because I didn't need her, but because I couldn't cope with the attention I got from having her with me. when I graduated college, I was feeling a little more stable to go out on my own, since I wasn't being put in potentially triggering situations much anymore. when I met my girlfriend, she became the person to go with me to the stressful stuff, and Rosemary became just a regular dog. she still does her tasks at home when needed, but that doesn't happen often. once she recognized that she didn't have to be professional anymore, I got to see more of her personality.

Rosemary is smart enough to know when she can get away with breaking a rule, though she only pretends not to hear commands when it comes from my girlfriend, since she respects her a little less than me. she makes a lot of dad noises and gets whiny when she wants to be pet or fed, which is cute, funny, and annoying at the same time when I'm trying to watch TV with dinner. now that she's ten years old, she spends most of her day curled up in a bed or sprawled out in a sunny spot. I always appreciate when she forces my door open with her nose so she can come lie in here while I work, even though she doesn't close the door behind her. when my girlfriend is home and on her computer, her office is where she spends the rest of the evening.

above all else, the trait I love the most about my dog is how affectionate she is. she leans on me when I ask for a hug and nuzzles her head into my hand while I pet her. I'm not the best at reading social cues, but with Rosemary, it's never hard to tell that she loves me.