Trip Delay

Well, I have decided to delay my trip until August. There are a few reasons for this - and most are good reasons.

1. I need to watch a marathon round of The Dog Whisperer before I go. I took Seymour to the 4th of July parade and he was the sweetest dog - with all of the people. All he wanted was to be petted and admired. Then other people started bringing their dogs and he became Agresso-Dog. He barked at all of them - just about all through the parade. It was like being at a good restaurant with your crying baby. The looks around me could have melted my chapstick if I had remembered to bring it. He doesn't bark at dogs he knows or if there is just one dog - but a parade of dogs did him in. I have to work on this before we leave. You never know when you're going to run into a parade of dogs.

2. I bought a new car on Friday - through e-bay. It's a salvage Prius that was fixed up. It was a bit risky since I didn't even talk to the sellers before I had won the car, but it worked out. I flew to Houston to pick it up and drove it home through a major rainstorm. I was a bit concerned when right after I signed the paperwork to officially purchase the car, a bolt of lightening hit the parking lot near my "new" car. My new "electric" with batteries - car. I guess it was just a "scared ya, didn't I" joke from above because the car was fine. Now I have to go through all of the paperwork and stuff to get the car titled, inspected and insured and I won't be able to do all of that before my trip was supposed to start. I also have to clean up my old car and sell it - hopefully before I leave. I'm including a pic of my cool new car - probably at the top of this page because I can't figure out how to put it anywhere else.

3. I haven't even opened the AAA book on traveling with pets and I really need to do that before I venture out on the road. I plan on doing that in the next couple of weeks. Well, I did open it and my eyes glazed over at all of the small print. It's like reading a phone book so I need to prepare myself before I open it again.

4. I still haven't e-mailed my friends that I am coming. It would be nice to give them a little notice.

5. Good and bad news - I signed up for a 30 day subscription to "Pets on the Go". I was thinking that 30 days was all I needed because I'd be done with my trip by the end of the subscription - now I'll need to pay for continued access to the website.

On the positive side, I bought a very nice seat cover for the new car to keep dog hair off of the upholstery. I also got a new package of Seymour's favorite treat - chicken tenders. Oh, and I also got pepper spray.

I plan to update this blog about once a week until I leave so hang in there. The adventure will start soon.

Where this started

This year my first adventure is to travel across the country with my dog Seymour. My little chihuahua mix is the first dog I've had in over 20 years. I don't know what came over me, but last fall I got on a "I want a dog" kick. I spent many evenings looking at petfinders.com and some weekends going to local animal shelters. I almost got a chihuahua from a rescue group but they made it ridiculously difficult to adopt so I decided to try other places. One evening on a whim, I went to the Town Lake Animal Shelter in Austin, TX and saw a little chihuahua all curled up on his bed in his cage. I opened the cage (not sure if I was supposed to) and picked him up. He wasn't real cuddly but he didn't squirm out of my arms either. I filled out adoption papers but was told that 2 other people were on the list to get "Rico" - but because he was heartworm positive they felt that it would be good to add me to the waiting list also.

I went home and told my daughter about the dog and the next morning I received a call saying the first 2 people turned him down due to his medical conditions and I could have him if I wanted. Long story longer, my daughter and I went to see him again and he was the most pitiful looking guy around - skin and bones, kennel cough, hair rubbed off around his neck due to a collar that was probably too tight, and heartworms. He still had the energy to run frantically around the dog park sniffing at everything and pretty much ignoring me. The Animal Shelter gave me the name of a place that did heartworm treatment for a reasonable rate and they gave me a discount since he was going to need medical care. How could I pass up a bargain! And my animal loving daughter approved. I named him Seymour because I kept thinking of the plant in "Little Shop of Horrors" yelling "Feed me, Seymour" and someone really needed to feed this dog. When I took him home, Seymour refused to look at me for a few weeks but one day, he answered to his name and started looking into my eyes and I knew he finally accepted me.

He's now a healthy 6 1/2 pound bundle of love with a side of sass. He has made my neighbor and my daughter fall in love with him, which is great since I travel for work and they volunteered to pet sit.

Since I have only had him for about 6 months, I decided that my first vacation this year would be with him. I'm going to drive to PA to see my family and friends and stop and see the sights (that will allow dogs) along the way. My trip will start mid-July and will last about 12 days. I've already started buying the essentials, which include:

1. Doggie car seat - too cute. We've been practicing using it. He doesn't like his collar attached to the car seat because he turns around so often in it, he ends up twisted into weird positions. He will sleep in the seat about 25% of the time.

2. Traveling with your Pet - the AAA Pet Book. I got this from Amazon. It lists some dog parks, lodging, campgrounds and a few attractions that allow pets. I'm not sure this will be enough info for me. I need to know restaurants, stores that allow pets and pet-friendly cities. I may need to buy another book or do an Internet search. It's a start and I'm sure I'll learn more as I go. Already I have found that Lowes, Home Depot and Garden Ridge Pottery are OK with dogs in carts or being held.

3. Travel bowls - OK, this was not an essential but it's soo cute. It looks like a little round purse that opens up with 2 bowls inside - as shown at the top of this page. It's kind of girlie, but Seymour doesn't seem to mind.

4. Clothes - since Seymour will probably never see the people we're going to visit again, he needs to be spiffy. He has plenty of clothes and bandannas and luckily they don't take up much room. I don't think I'll bring them on his doggie clothes hangers (yes, they really make those, and no, I don't use them, but yes as embarrassing as it is, I do have some)

5. Dog food and treats - this is going to be a bit of a pain because I'll need an ice chest to keep his dog food cold. It takes him about 4 days to eat a can of dog food. The only treats he will eat are Jerky Tenders and he probably eats 2-3 a day. Luckily those are easy to pack and require no refrigeration.

6. Dog crate - I have to decide whether I should bring the big bulky crate that he sleeps in each night (with his little stuffed dog) or the smaller portable crate I bought. Maybe I'll bring both. By the way, Seymour sleeps with this little stuffed dog and every morning when I let him out of his crate, he makes sure he takes his stuffed dog out of the crate also. He doesn't play with it, he just drops it somewhere in the room and there it stays until it's time for bed.

I have less than 2 weeks until we leave and I've been trying to teach him some tricks to impress the friends and family. For some reason, he will not learn "sit" and forget about "shake" or "roll over". He knows "stop", "lay down" and "stay" and that's about the extent of his "tricks". He'll just have to win them over with his cuteness!

I plan on bringing my computer and updating this blog frequently. I'm even going to bring my camera and hopefully add some pictures. I'm starting to get excited.

More planning to come -