Back to the Grind

On Monday night, Maizy finally returned to her (volunteer) gig, hanging out with the residents of a local assisted living facility (aka, the "old folks").

We only stayed for about a half hour (Maizy started to get super playful after this and it was time to go, which is funny because she got home and crashed on the couch from exhaustion) and lots of the residents were happy to see Maizy again, especially the man in the wheelchair who she likes to "clean up" after dinner (he sometimes has crumbs on the front of his shirt). Those two are in LOVE! He will just hold her head and kiss kiss kiss her.

There is another lady, I think her name is Louise, who will come up to me 4 or 5 times while I'm there asking what Maizy "is" (same initial question every time), meaning what kind of dog? I always tell everyone that she is a mutt because a lot of the residents are not all there mentally, so it's too much to start talking about breeds, honestly. I will tell you more about Louise in a minute.

And of course, Maizy's biggest "hater" was there last night! He is a very very very angry man who does not like dogs! He came down for dinner (we hang out in a room very seperate from the dining room, but we come at dinner time because that's when residents are coming and going downstairs so that they can visit with Miss M on their way to/from dinner), saw Maizy, and started yelling about how I needed to get out of there and "there's a dining room here!" and carrying on. The whole time, his wife is giggling and saying "don't listen to him, he's just allergic to dogs" and "I love dogs! She's great!" Maizy was looking very, very, very confused.

It is funny because Maizy WILL bark at a stranger who yells at me or approaches me in a way that she doesn't like. She has done it before when a strange man tried to touch me (and her) in West Philadelphia (during Shakespeare in the park... oops). She does not tolerate that crap. But, I think with old angry man, she just sees that he's not a threat and will sit there looking at him like "huh?"

Anyway, so the man and his wife get to the dining room and I can see them from where I'm sitting and the man is standing up waving his arms for a server (they have sit down dinner service). The server comes over and the man says, "There is a woman with a dog over there! Get her the hell out of here!" (This is normal and I hear this from him EVERY TIME I'm there. He has to deal with the fact that I'm there because the other residents do like Maizy and because I don't let Maizy approach anyone who doesn't want to be approached, etc.)

Louise, who is sitting in the living room area hears him, and gets up and STORMS over as much as a little old lady with a walker can storm and yells, "Someone should get you the hell out of here!!" Now this is funny because then the wife and Louise get into a fight about it, but neither of them can hear very good, so they keep getting closer (slowly) and repeating themselves and the wife says that he was bit by a dog once and that's why he doesn't like them and Louise says he can get the hell out and I am generally "WTH!"-ing. Also, during the argument (which didn't last long, honestly), other people in the dining room are saying "huh?!" to Louise because they think she is talking to them, so she is also clarifying loudly to the confused people exactly WHO can "get the hell out"!

Anyway, several minutes later, Louise comes back over and asks me what Maizy "is" and I tell her again that Maizy is just a mutt. She looks at Maizy and says, "She says you're just a mutt!" (which is one of her usual replies) and then looks at me and says, "That's okay, I love her! And anyone that doesn't like her... Well, I. DON'T. LIKE. THEM."

And here I thought that Louise coudln't remember anything? She certainly remembered that she will stick up for her friend, Miss Maizy!