There are a lot of little things people do that really bother me, but that I feel I can't mention because they sound so silly. A rather extreme example of this was a woman in one of the college classes I've taken at the local university center.
It was the first day of class and we were all choosing our seats. I went to sit in the back, which is one of the things I try to always do because it makes things easier on Poodleface. If I'm at the back of the room none of my classmates will need to walk by me, which greatly reduces the chance that Poodleface will be tripped over or stepped on, and also makes it easier for everyone in the room to ignore him.
A woman in yoga gear and with long blond hair (I never learned her name) came in and started looking around for a seat. When she saw Poodleface her eyes grew wide and she immediately sat down in the seat in front of me, turned herself backwards, and started watching my dog. I expected her to hold out her hand to him or try to whisper something, and after a minute of this I was beginning to pray she would, so that I could tell her off and get her to turn back around. But she didn't. She was just...staring. The instructor came in and introduced himself and started talking, but she didn't turn back around. She was still staring at my dog! Not moving, just staring, barely blinking, with her mouth open! I had a half-dozen snarky comments I was dying to make, but she hadn't done anything to be besides thoroughly creep me out, so I stayed silent and squirmed uncomfortably. Almost ten minutes into the class the teacher passed out a worksheet to see how much we already knew, and this seemed to break the spell. She turned around, and you could've cleared the leaves off your front lawn with my sigh of relief. But then she finished her worksheet and went back to staring at my dog.
I'd had enough, and I asked her what she was doing. She beamed at me and told me that my dog was amazingly well-behaved, and so cute, and she just loved him, but that I shouldn't worry because she wasn't going to try and touch him. All I could think of to say was, "Can you...not....please?"
She turned back around, but for the rest of the semester she'd turn around and watch my dog whenever she was bored.
Please don't stare at me, I hate it, and if you absolutely have to stare maybe you could close your mouth?!?
I don't know if it'd help you, but it IS distracting for dogs when someone makes eye contact with them. Y'know, for future starers. Sadly, you and I both know there will be some. Bleh.
ReplyDelete~Kali
PS: you have Captcha set up for posting - people who are blind or have reduced vision have a great deal of trouble with Captcha, as do people with dyslexia. I make sure I don't have it set up on my blog so that it's as accessible as possible.