The Adventures of Stella Luna: The Hair Salon

Now, I should begin with warning you, this wasn't just a story of my owner and I. This also involved my grandmother and uncle, Mama's brother. But let me just get into it.

When we walked in, I immediately knew this was going to be an interesting visit. The air smelled of sweet-scented shampoo, there was chatter in the back, and the lady at the front desk looked down at me with a keen-eye. I stood tall and walked beside Mama, proud of my official service dog status—I'd only been a service dog one day at this point. This was my first outing as an official service dog, and I was going to prove myself.

The man who was going to be doing my uncle's hair came over and stopped when he saw me. "What a gorgeous dog!" he said, beaming at me. He turned to my owner, "what's she for?"

Now, Mama always got flustered when she was drilled with these questions. I knew she knew what to say, but it always got stuck on her tongue. You don't have to tell him, I tried to remind her, but she just smiled at him and said, "She's a psychiatric service dog." He nodded and continued on, "That's cool."

Then—and you won't believe this—he took my uncle and took him into this mysterious back room full of people talking and loud noises whirring and scissors snip-snipping. I sat down next to Mama, but for a while, I just stared off at where he had disappeared to. I mean, he wasn't my owner, but what if he would get hurt?! There were loud noises back there after all! And I hadn't sniffed the man yet.

Then I smelled it, smelled the sharp zing of Mama's anxiety spiking. Turning away from the door, I rested my snoot in her lap. It's going to be okay, I tried to tell her silently. Silently, she looked at me, stroking my face in the way I loved—over my ears, under my "chin," and across my nose... ohhhh yeah, that's the spot. I don't know how long it was before the smell went away and I looked back to where my uncle had disappeared to. Still gone.

I turned away from Mama and curled up at her feet on top of the fluffy carpet they had in the waiting room. I looked over at the lady at the front desk. She had sat back in her chair. Aha! She thinks I'm legit. And then I realized all over again: I AM!!

And... I honestly don't remember the rest of the appointment. Mama took out a book that she was reading for the blog (she took notes and everything, can you imagine?), and I ended up napping. And when I woke up, my uncle was back!! So it was a happy ending in a strange place.

Oh, but when I woke up, Mama told me a few things. Apparently, someone had said I looked mystical, and a lot of the hairdressers were talking about me. Mama was smiling when she said it, but I wasn't impressed. I know I'm pretty, they don't need to tell me that. What I would really like was if they asked to pet me. Because if I'm a really good girl, Mama will say yes!

Anyways, that was my adventure at the hair salon. Now here's a picture!