Entire Dog Blog

Nesbit, the guide dog for Recording For The Blind and Dyslexic officer George Kerscher, has received a special award from Delta for being a million-mile Frequent Flier.

Nesbit and Kerscher, a Platinum Medallion SkyMiles member, have been travelling together for 8 years. Delta has a special program for the service dogs of disabled customers.

Petergreenberg.com has a list of airlines that offer Frequent Flier Miles for Pets.

Today's Bus Inc. twice discriminated against a blind man and his seeing-eye dog according to a lawsuit filed yesterday in U.S. District Court. Joe Orozco and his service dog Gator (a 75 pound German Shepherd) were allowed onto a Washington to Manhattan bus only after calling police, and a Manhattan to Washington bus only if they sat at the back of the bus according to Orozco. The relationship between the disabled and their service dogs is protected by Federal law.

Initially, Orozco says he was told that if he wanted Gator to accompany him on the Washington to New York trip, "his only choice was to put the dog beneath the bus in the luggage compartment." He called police, and was eventually allowed entry onto the bus.

On his return trip to Washington, Orozco and Gator were sent to the back of the bus.

Orozco said he spent the four-hour trip on the seat by the toilet, feeling "humiliated."

"I felt hopeless that I couldn't do anything to change what had happened," he said in an interview yesterday. ". . . I thought, if I wasn't blind, this wouldn't be happening. Being discriminated against was one thing, but having been segregated was upsetting."

The Washington Post was able to catch up with someone claiming to be the son of the Todays Bus owner.

A man who identified himself as the son of the owner of Todays Bus, located at 610 I St. NW, said yesterday that he regrets what happened, attributing the problems to employees' difficulties in understanding English and their lack of familiarity with the law.

"We feel bad for it," Jimmy Zhang said. "It sounds like our company is bad, but now our company knows what laws exist and what we must do."

Kate, a 5-year-old Black Labrador Retriever and Service Dog, was refused entry to the China Cook restaurant (Huntsville, AL), even after her blind human companion Pamela Ewald called police to explain to the manager that Service Dogs are allowed in restaurants. WHNT-TV Newschannel 19 is there.

"She treated us very ugly. She told me that I had to put my dog outside, that she was not allowed in the restaurant," says Pamela.

Pamela says she tried to explain to the lady that Kate goes everywhere she goes.

"I told the young lady that she was a service dog. She was my eyes. And she said she didn't care what she was, she was a dog and to get her outside."

Service Dogs are always highly trained and well-mannered dogs. always thought it was common knowledge that the people who are assisted by Service Dogs are those who need to be. I guess there's still some more work to be done in educating the public of their crucial role.

And I managed not to make any jokes about Chinese food and dogs.