Sunday, May 21, 2017

This is not the way I wanted to fire up this blog again!

These pages haven't seen any new word for a few months.  For that I should apologize.  Perhaps.  The truth is, I have been unwilling and unable to sit at a keyboard and try to makes sense of everything Rambo and I have been through in the past 6 months.  I will do my best in coming tales to bring you up to speed.  Some of the things I am referring to deserve their own story and some can be clumped up one one simple title of "Well, Poop!"  We have had many adventures, some good and a few just plain terrifying.  Hopefully that whets your appetite sufficiently to read the missives to come.

Let me address my absence.  I will keep it simple.  I've been preoccupied with various problems in my life that don't bear repeating in depth.  Most of it is probably bigger in my mind than in reality and would likely bore you.  I've also had some medical issues that have reared up unexpectedly but all is well now (as well as can be for a Gulf War Veteran anyway).  Let me just say that an inflamed gallbladder is a nasty bit of business and can cause abdominal pain that definitely gets my attention.  I had an infection in my spine that irritated a nerve that ran all the way down my arm.  The pain ran down my arm and was excruciating. I barely slept for a week and my doctor refused to give me pain medication (for no apparent reason for which I have not let him forget!).  Finally some heavy duty antibiotics took care of the problem.  In all, that episode took most of a month in which I could barely lift my right arm to the keyboard without intense pain on top of my hand and forearm going numb.  

Through all this, Rambo was a trooper.  He snuggled up to me when he was able and otherwise annoyed the hell out of me while I was moaning in pain in his best attempt to distract me from the torture, keep me focused in reality and even put a smile on my face now and again.   A dog like this, you can't buy with money.  He's just a big, black furry ball of love and he never lets me forget it.

Now I have to address something that just happened to Rambo and I.  Frustratingly, this is not the first time this has happened and I'm fairly confident that it will not be the last.

Today I checked into a hotel in Spokane, Washington.  We are just staying one night and I picked a decent hotel with a fair price.  The hotel in question is the Madison Inn by Riversage, a fairly nice place by all reviews.  Previous guests touted the nice service, decent rooms and the quiet location.  Of course, no one wrote anything about service dogs.  There really aren't that many of us, I suppose.  All I know is that when I walked in with Rambo everything started going downhill faster than I could have ever expected.

Things actually went okay until it got to the, "and I see you have a pet" statement.  I politely informed him that Rambo was my service dog.  At this point, if he would have just kept his mouth shut, I would have been okay with whatever he did and would be none the wiser.  But he had to say, "Well, I have you booked into the 4th floor.  I'm going to have to move you down to the second floor {the pets allowed floor].  I asked if I could just stay in the room they had me in and that I would prefer not to be in the pet section as other dogs will distract my dog (and perhaps elicit the occasional bark which really try to avoid but Rambo's German Shepherd DNA comes out when I least prefer it).

At this point I got the "The hotel separates dogs from people with allergies" line.  I've heard this too many times and my response just rolled off my tongue, "The ADA and the courts state that my right to have my service dog accompany me where I want to go trumps people's allergies.  I would like to stay in the room you have me booked in."

At this point, the guy behind the desk got nasty, compete with the appropriate facial expression and said, "how would you like to just cancel your reservation?"  I told him no and if he was going to discriminate that I would gladly call the police to spell it out to him.

He continued, irate, and said, "So what am I supposed to do when I have to comp someone's room because of allergies?"  I told him immediately and in no uncertain terms that was his responsibility and unequivocally not mine.  I informed him that the law and courts have said that the business is responsible for moving guests with allergies as far away from the dog as is possible or desirable.  I further volunteered that if he choses to segregate me and my service dog to a place that I do not wish to go that would be discrimination in which I could raise a civil suit.  I also offered to help him with law if he wished to which he did not respond.

At that point he suddenly became Mr. Nice and continued to check me in.  I don't know if it was what I said although I doubt it.  I think he acquiesced because other guests had come into the lobby and I'm happy to have an audience when someone who clearly has no clue as to what the law says pertaining to service dogs starts to give me the run around.  I am too well versed in the law and my options to allow anyone to discriminate against me or try to humiliate me in public ever again.  I welcome the challenge but it is usually a battle of wits with an unarmed person and they get thrown to the mat in every instance.

The final thing he says is, "I see you are in a King room.  I've given you an upgrade."  I said thank you and left it at that.  When I got to my room, it is exactly the same type of room I booked,  Perhaps the upgrade business was for the audience.  Regardless, it was not an upgrade.

So once again I will have to write a letter to the management of the hotel, whether that is local or national, and explain to them the misunderstanding and ask them to please have someone from their law department please, please, please teach your employees about the ADA and subsequent court decisions that affect it.  I will point out to them that hotels that have a knowledgeable staff never give me any problems when it comes to a simple room request.  In fact, I am often greeted without any reference to my dog whatsoever until the desk clerk informs me that they put me in a room that should be convenient for me to take Rambo in and out as needed.  They frequently add that, if I don't like that room location, that they will move me to wherever will best accommodate my needs.  Its simple and easy to make a guest feel welcome with just a wee bit of knowledge.  In any case, other than his attitude, I can't wholly blame the guy at the desk.  That squarely lies on his management.

I should not have to start off my stay at a hotel with the front desk minion getting irate when I make a simple request.  I'm not just paying good money for a room to sleep in.  I'm paying for a staff that should treat me in a respectable manner as a paying customer.

I will end this rant here and if anything further comes of it, I will update things as they come along.

In the next few days, I will share with you an experience with Rambo that flat out scared the hell out of me that ended up with Rambo in surgery.  Blood, gore and guts coming to this blog soon!

I have to add just one more thing.  At some point, there will even be aerial photography!


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