Baseball!

My friend Heather (who also works at UT with me) and I have tried to make an effort to go to more UT sports games this season. We work with a number of student athletes with disabilities so it's fun to go watch them compete. We got off to a good start with football in September and then had a bit of a lull but we decided to get back on track by going to a UT baseball game.

View of the UT Baseball Field

As someone who played softball growing up the start of spring is always associated with baseball and softball.The cool evenings make me want to go outside and throw the ball around. Although we had planned to go that night we hadn't bought tickets until that day (figuring a 6pm Wednesday game wouldn't sell out). You can't buy accessible seats online so we just decided to buy regular seats and make it work. That's always a risk but this time it worked out fine since the stadium had plenty of empty accessible seats.

Morey at the ball field

 Looking at this picture of Morey on the right you might think he looks happy but he was actually really stressed. Ever since his seizure certain situations seem to trigger him into becoming unusually stressed and obviously that's something I want to avoid! I know keep a few anxiety pills on hand, along with jerky strips, so I am prepared. Watching him become anxious I popped him a pill- knowing this would be a better option at the moment rather than trying to leave.

Morey laying under the stadium seat

Happy Morey

 Once the pills take effect Morey becomes super happy (and a little clumsy). It's definitely preferable than having him be super stressed but it does make me feel a little bad. Most dogs who have anxiety/fear would not become service dogs because it's not fair or safe to force them into situations that stress them out. With Morey it's a little different because this stress is acquired. I have talked with my vet and feel like because it's happening so infrequently this option is working for now. If it got to the point where it was happening on a daily basis I would obviously have to consider my options. I want Morey to be my service dog as long as possible but it is more of a priority to keep him happy and healthy!

I wanted to see if we could end up on the Kiss Cam but since Morey was laying on the ground we were never on the screen. His favorite part was taking part in the 7th inning stretch!