The first stop was the vape store, never have problems there they love seeing Dougal come through the door. Then to walleworld.
As it was later in the evening I knew there were going to be a lot of people there, and as I predicted it was slammed packed. Was it black Friday again? I walked Dougal past every tree between us and the store just to give my anxiety time to calm down. Even Dougal was looking at me questionably after the 4th "break" command.Well, we finally made it inside and accepted our buggy. With so many people this was going to be as fast as a trip as possible, or at least that was the plan. First stop.. soda. Didn't even make it halfway there before a nylon-enclosed carriage exited an aisle we were passing that encased a miniature hellhound! That dog hit the front of its enclosure so hard it looked as if one of Elon Musk's rockets was attached to the rear of the carriage. All I saw was fur and teeth, and a bark that was meant for a dog a lot larger than this beast! The Hell-beast Fu-Fu Dog scared both of so bad I went straight into panic mode and Dougal jumped in between with hackles up. The lady pushing her demon servant finally pulled back and Dougal went straight into alert on me. We had yet to even hit the 5-minute mark...
So with my blood pressure and heart rate finally slowing down, and the human groceries taken care of it was time to head to the pet food area. Normally the only thing I ever have to worry about Dougal is browsing the toys. Well, we almost made it. Seems a family had decided to allow their new puppy to come with them on their Hell-Mart adventure.
This poor puppy decides Dougal looks like a furry chew toy and jets to the end of its leed. I think Dougal has about had it with this trip and he casually moved to my other side, sat, and looked up at me as if to ask "Are you serious?" I look at the family and ask them if they would please get control of their dog. Laughing, the female of the group says "Well, this cracker gonna be a dick. Get the dog and come on" and they finally walk on. Have we even reached the 10-minute mark? Time for the "Grab and Go" shopping method!On the way to the checkout, we pass at least 2 other canines, one of which decides to notify everyone in this "super store" that he is there, as loudly as it can, without a PA. We finally get out of there with everything needed. What a zoo! Last study I read that service dog teams make up less than .1% of the population of the US. If we were to go with a flat 1% that would be 1 SD team / 3,300,000 people. Not including our team we passed 4 other "teams". What are the odds?
