Women take dogs for a scoot

Teri Nash and Millie Bonds have a lot in common.

They live in the same apartment complex and share a sharp sense of humor.

But the two “scooter divas” have a connection that goes beyond their designated diva status – they have scooter dogs.

“I walk my dogs with my scooter. They know everybody in the neighborhood, and everybody knows them. They even have their set feed stations,” Nash said.

Shelly and Lulu, a combined 72 pounds of muscle, escort Nash throughout Spokane Valley. The basset hounds sway as they walk, and their trademark hound-dog barks signal their arrival.

“They decide where they want to go,” Nash said. “They know the names of the streets. They know ‘left,’ ‘right,’ ‘back up,’ ‘turn on right’ and ‘turn on left,’ don’t you, girls?”

Alongside them, guiding Bonds’ red scooter, are Chihuahua trainees Double and Trouble, with a combined weight of 13 pounds.

“I keep them right next to me,” Bonds said. “We’ve started the ‘turn left,’ ‘turn right.’ They haven’t gotten it down pat, but they’re learning.”

In 1997, Nash was managing a women’s shelter in Alaska when she began having difficulty walking.

“I was diagnosed with deep depression by a neurologist,” she said. “But my GP felt it had to be something else.”

That something else was multiple sclerosis.

“When I was first diagnosed, I fought like hell against the disease. I took all kinds of medications. When they started a trial of chemotherapy, I was right there,” she said.

But the treatments made Nash extremely sick, and she decided it wasn’t worth it.

“If the medication is making you worse, what the hell, you know? You may buy 20 years of life, but man, are you ever sick,” she said.

Nash was program director for Spokane’s Multiple Sclerosis Society but left after a year. “It was just too difficult,” she said.

Now, her days consist of scooter outings and accepting life.

Bonds was a nurse at Sacred Heart Medical Center for eight years when she began having problems with her leg. Four back surgeries followed.

“It really knocked the pins out from underneath me,” she said.

Then, in 2003, Bonds was diagnosed with a rare eye disease and declared legally blind.

“These girls are now my eyes,” she said, referring to her canine cohorts, Double and Trouble.

Illness not only took away the two women’s lifestyles but also ended their marriages.

“My ex-husband was never a person who could handle any kind of illness,” Nash said.

“Mine was the same way,” Bonds said. “I guess the ‘I do’s‘ that they said upfront must have had an ‘I don’t’ in there somewhere.”

The two women moved into an apartment complex on Valleyway and became best friends.

“The dogs really get you to know one another,” Nash said.

The women also have overcome scooter mishaps with flair, such as when Bonds “lost all my power” and got stuck in the driveway. The two women howled with laughter as they recalled Nash using her dilapidated scooter to push Bonds’ stylish red scooter up the driveway.

“You have to plug them in, but it’s a lot cheaper than $3.29 a gallon” for gas, Bonds said.

“They had the Parade of the Red Scooters last year,” Nash said. “I didn’t fit in because I have a gray one, ugly and old. This poor thing is really beat.”

A recent request for a new scooter was declined. Nash was disappointed, but that didn’t keep this woman down.

“At the end of the street is a big field with paths that go every which way, so we go out there and go four-wheeling.”

Scooter mishaps can’t hold a candle to pooch mishaps.

One time, Nash brought home two bags of doggy treats, placing them far back on the counter. When she returned, Shelly and Lulu were “angels, so quiet and good. Then I looked down the hall and saw a piece of plastic sticking out under the door. I opened the door, and they had eaten a huge bag of bacon strips and dog cookies, then slipped the bags under the door so I wouldn’t know.”

Despite mishaps and close encounters, they say they can’t imagine life without scooters and the dogs that accompany them.

“This is the best thing that I could’ve gotten,” Nash said.

“I don’t know what I’d do without mine,” Bonds said.

As for the dogs, the two women love them beyond measure.

“Most people are so tickled to play with the dogs. They’re social magnets,” Bonds said.

“And there’s one sight you’ve got to see,” she said. “When Teri’s out there on Valleyway and there’s snow on the ground … it looks just like she’s got reindeer – like Santa Claus is on the way.”

“Yeah,” Nash said, “short-legged reindeer.”