Mom here: Please know that I just need to vent and get my thoughts out there. These are my thoughts and my experiences only, and are not meant to offend anyone. I also acknowledge that this experience may not be representative of the organization; again just my experience and opinions are posted here. I grew up in a family business where customer service is a top priority that keeps us in business for 35 years and counting.

My husband and I went to Petsmart for a few maintenance items and found ourselves drawn to the ARPO adoption area where there were some very cute boxer pups. We shopped around the store but came back to the pups. I observed people hugging and loving on the pups. I went over and looking back, it wasn't very respectful of me to do this, but I attempted to pick up a puppy from the playpen. A woman (obviously part of the organization) said in a rude tone, "Uh-uh, no no!" She then put the pup back on the ground as I said, "Oh, sorry..." She got the pup out of my hands and said, "The dogs NEED to stay on the ground. You can't just touch them." She squirted some waterless handwash in my hands and then continued to talk to others.

No one around me (mostly from the organization) said anything to me about why I couldn't handle them, etc, etc, they just all looked at me like I tried to steal a puppy. I walked over to my husband and told him what happened, though I was still interested in seeing a puppy. Note, no one from the organization said hello to us or acknowledged us from the beginning. He stood around and tried to find the pup I was interested in, but no one said anything to him. He was going to ask someone, but as he approached the pen, the same lady who snapped at me was placing a puppy (the one I was interested in) in another prospective owner's arms.

Here's where I get offended. As a representative of ARPO, I would think that positive customer service is of great importance, especially when people appear interested in contributing to the organization and adopting a dog from them.

I did not appreciate being spoken to in a rude manner without explanation about why I could not handle any of the adoptable puppies. I felt like a five year old. Granted, I look young for my age, but regardless of whether I am 5 years or 35 years old, appropriate education should have been offered to me as to why "the dogs can't be touched."

It was obvious to me that they could be touched and picked up. Albeit, picked up from a volunteer and placed in the arms of a prospective owner, but that option was not given to me. And there were multiple volunteers who could have chosen to explain why I got scolded and redirect that negative action into an educational opportunity.

I am an educated American citizen and I do not advocate playing "the race card." I am not Caucasian, and neither is my husband. I cannot otherwise explain why we were ignored except for the fact that we could appear to be non-English speaking to people who are not as culturally aware that English speakers come in all shapes and colors.

This disappoints me because there were plenty of volunteers around, and potential dog adopters as well but we were never greeted in the slightest. The only interaction I had was a woman who scolded me for trying to pick up the boxer puppy. And she only spoke those two sentences to me, in a tone similar to that of a parent yelling at a child when they are about to misbehave.

There is no other way for me to examine this experience other than racially because no one offered any reasoning to not being able to touch the puppies. I was especially offended when the same pup was handed over to a Caucasian woman and volunteers were talking to her telling her about the dogs.

Perhaps it is also a customer service issue, as you only get one chance to make a first impression. But it appeared to me that others were getting customer service that we were denied.