Whose Bed Is This Anyway?? (and a rant)

This morning I was stretching my legs out and ended up having both of my big toes nipped simultaneously.  grrrrrrr  The cats aren't toooo bad about letting us have the bed during the day.  No, I take that back, Thomas believes that this is his bed.  If anyone gets up, Thomas will immediately come and lay down just below the pillows, stretching out to make his stake on the spot.  But at night, we have four cats who firmly believe the end of the bed belongs to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Kitty Horde.

In other news, on a forum I am on, there were two separate posts concerning service dogs.  Each post detailed at least three different situations where strangers came up and began petting the dogs or allowed children to throw themselves on the dogs loving them.  Now, if you're not familiar with service dogs, they are trained very carefully to help the people they work with to keep them safe and healthy.  But when they're working, and you can tell because they're wearing their jackets/vests/etc, they can not be distracted.  Especially if they are young or just out of training or still in training.  Many times a service dog needs to be trained after they get out of primary training to learn about the special needs of the person they are working with.

Okay, I admit it, this is a pet peeve of mine.  I was taught not to pet anyone's pet without asking them first.  I was told that I could admire the pet, but I had to address the owner, because you never know the temperament of the animal.  If you always follow this rule, you don't have to worry because you'd never address a service dog first anyway.  I taught this same rule to my children as well.  Along with the, "Put your hand out closed like a paw and let the dog sniff you first" "Put your hand out, fingers out, for a cat and let them sniff you first" but always always always ask the owner first.  Ummmm, is this a soapbox under me??

and now, a doggie t-shirt for anyone who might need it...