I'm Invisible

Elizabeth Bourgeret and Great Dane, Meera Photo by Shaun Kneemiller

I'm Invisible

​Over the weekend, our country celebrated its birthday.  So Meera, my trusty Great Dane, and I went down to the riverfront to join in on the festivities!  There were crowds, and vendors and kids everywhere.  Meera was in heaven!  She loves all the attention she gets when we go to these events.  And I enjoy the live bands, so it's usually a win-win.  We find a nice spot to stand so I can dance in place to the music and she can wait patiently for kids and adults to come up to pet her, marvel at her size and compliment her on her demeanor.  She loves every moment of it.  She is patient and doesn't even slobber on people.  She has to watch the tail every once in a while... but other than that, she is a most congenial festival-goer.

This year I noticed that when people came up to us, they would talk directly to Meera and not to me.  It's only when Meera didn't respond to their questions that they'd finally turn to me for answers.  

I met up with a few friends and while we were standing around, the people who would come up to pet Meera, would ask my FRIENDS about MY dog!  I'm holding the leash and everything!  As if I wasn't even there.  They would ask my friends the "owner questions" like, how old, boy or girl, what breed, can we pet her...
Wouldn't you think to ask the one holding the leash those questions??  Me too, but everyone directed their questions else where.

So, the experiment continued.  I handed the leash over to one of my friends to see if the questioning varied.  NO!  They STILL asked them instead of ME!!  HELLO!! I'm the Momma!!  So I stood watching my friends be the dog owner... it was weird.

But it got even worse!  When my friends didn't know the answer to the questions they would look to me and I would answer them!  The "petters" waited for the answer to come back through the friend, and then acted like it was the first time they heard the information.  Sometimes, my friends would even say, "It's her dog." and they STILL wouldn't look to me!  I have never felt so invisible in all my life!!  I've always thought I was approachable.  I try to be kind and friendly.  I'm available to answer Great Dane questions... Big dog questions, good with kids questions...  It was the weirdest thing.  Even my friends were starting to see the reality of it so, it wasn't just in my head!  

It turned into the joke of the evening, and even while Meera was attached to my wrist, I concentrated on the music and my friends socialized with the dog-folks that came up to her.

Who ever said bringing your pet to the park is the best way to meet people was obviously not invisible!

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