One hot summers day back in late July of this year (2008), Dobbs and I had been waiting for a bus on Sunset Boulevard for nearly an hour. Buses on Sunset often run at irregular intervals due to heavy traffic but this bus was particularly late in arriving. When the bus finally pulled up I could tell there was something weird going on. The driver didn’t open the door right away and left us standing in the hot sun for nearly a minute before he finally opened the door and let us board. The heat is really stressful on Dobbs and if I hadn’t needed to be out traveling that afternoon I wouldn’t have been. I wasn’t sure what to make of the delay but I was glad to get into the air conditioning for both my sake and for Dobbs’ and so I didn’t think much of it and put it out of my mind for the moment.
As I boarded, I waived my bus pass in the air for the driver to see, got to the top of the steps on the bus and called for Dobbs to follow me on board which he did. As Dobbs scrambled up the steps the Driver said, “There’s a seat behind me on the right and watch out for your dog, there’s a cat on the bus.” “Huh?” I said, “a cat?” “Yeah, right across from you,” he said with no further explanation. Just then a droll woman’s voice began speaking, “Oh, now this will be interesting.” She paused. “This will be a chance to do some teaching and learning.” I just ignored her and got to my seat and got Dobbs into his sitting position, between my legs, so that the Driver could proceed.
Dobbs was very interested in the cat across the aisle from us but I didn’t realize that the cat wasn’t in a kennel. “He’s a beautiful dog,” said the droll woman seated across from me. “Thank you,” I said, “He’s my best buddy.” “I see he’s attentive to my cat,” she said, “I have a guide cat with me over here and I can see that your dog is very interested in him. That’s good. That means he’s doing his job.” Now at this point I’m thinking out loud and inadvertently blurted out, “Guide cat?” “Yes,” she said, “I have a guide cat which is much superior to a guide dog in both training and temperament.” I pulled out my monocular and looked at the woman seated across from me. She was rather disheveled with wild brown curly hair and draped over her shoulder was a scrawny, white, shorthaired cat. The cat was just laying there letting her run her hands over it but it was defiantly eyeing Dobbs.
Now to be fair, I had heard about this woman from several bus drivers who had asked me some very pointed questions in the past about what constituted a legitimate service animal and whether or not I had ever heard of a service cat before but I never figured that I would actually cross paths with this person. Apparently, the MTA management was trying to figure out if they could deny this woman access to their buses as long as she had her cat with her. I had previously told the drivers that I simply didn’t know the answers to their questions but I had never heard of such a thing and didn’t believe that cats were trainable and therefore would unlikely be used as service animals for that reason.
At this point, I became concerned. There’s no such thing as a guide cat and so I knew that this woman was either working the system or more likely was a few bricks short of a full load (if you know what I mean). While I knew Dobbs wouldn’t get out of control or go after the cat, I had no idea as to what the cat on the woman’s shoulder would do. I was growing increasingly worried that if the cat sprang at Dobbs or attacked him in some other way, the woman would have no way of controlling her animal and Dobbs could be injured and/or refuse to work afterwards if attacked. Pets aren’t allowed to ride the bus unless they’re in a kennel because of health and safety concerns for the general public and for the safety of service animals like Dobbs. I also guessed that the reason the driver had not opened the door was likely because he wasn’t sure what was going to happen with my dog and this woman’s cat. As it turns out, my guess was close but more on that later.
I decided that I had no choice but to act. One of the things that become very apparent while you’re in guide dog school is that the welfare and safety of your guide dog is paramount. Ultimately, an individual person’s safety and well being depends upon your guide dog and anything that could erode or jeopardize the dog’s well being is by default jeopardizing a person’s personal safety. This woman was placing my dog in jeopardy and thus my safety in jeopardy, unintentionally perhaps, but her behavior was by definition reckless nonetheless.
I realized that directly confronting her and demanding that she leave the bus with her cat was beyond my authority and only the bus driver or the police could remove her from the bus so I took another tact, I began to barrage her with questions about her “guide cat’s” training. Questions that I knew she would be unable to answer because her cat had no training because there’s no such thing as a guide cat. My hope was that the bus driver would be listening and would hear enough to realize that this woman was lying to him in order to bring her pet cat with her on the bus.
I asked the woman which school she had attended to learn how to perform guide work with her cat? No answer. I asked her whether or not a cat used the same kinds of commands that a guide dog used. She reacted. “No, you need to read the ADA,” she said. “I’m allowed under the ADA to have my guide cat with me on public transportation. You need to learn about the ADA.” I said, "Madam, I’m blind. I know all about the ADA. I’m trying to find out how much training you’re guide cat has and who did the training.” “No, you’re not allowed to question me. You need to go to ADA.gov and read the rules about access for service animals,” she said. “I know all about the rules for access,” I said, “what I want to know is what proof you have that your cat is a legitimate service animal. I’m concerned that your untrained cat might attack my dog and harm him. For me this is a safety issue. I’m merely asking you questions which you should have no trouble answering.” All she could repeat was that I needed to go to ada.gov and look up the rules. By this point the driver had heard enough. Just as we pulled up to the stop on Sunset and Highland, the bus driver spoke up and told her that if she wouldn’t answer the questions I was asking then she could answer some questions he had for her about the legitimacy of her “guide cat.” Well, she suddenly realized the gig was up and said, “This is my stop anyway. Next time maybe you’ll all be aware of what ada.gov says and won’t be so ignorant of the rules and will be more considerate.”
She got off the bus (with her cat thank goodness) at which point everyone around me let out a collective sigh of relief. Apparently, she had been torturing people with her endless talking about her service cat prior to me getting on the bus. During the time that the driver had held me on the curb before opening the door, he had warned her that I had a dog and that she needed to keep control of her cat or he would put her off the bus. It seems that when I started questioning her, she had become extremely nervous, as I had hoped she would, but not because I was challenging her but because she knew that the bus driver was already suspicious of her cat.
To be honest with you, I don’t feel bad about doing what I did. My guide dog is the most important thing in my life and his well-being comes first above and beyond the feelings or desires of other people. I have a contract with Guide Dogs for the Blind which clearly states that I agree to advocate for the safety and well being of my guide dog should the need arise. The school retains ownership of the dog. Dobbs is merely on loan to me from the school. If I don’t live up to my end of the bargain, they can, at their discretion, remove Dobbs from my possession and reissue him to someone else in order to protect their investment in his raising and training. By trying to scam the system, this woman had forced me into a position where I was required to intervene for the well being of my dog. Clearly, she hadn’t though through what would happen if someone else got on the bus with a legitimate service animal. I haven’t seen the woman since that day nor have any bus drivers asked me about service cats. I can only hope that this means she is no longer trying to scam the system or has been permanently barred from riding the bus.
