A Tale Wagging Time

Do you love your dog? Of course, you do! I love my dog - even though she drives me up the wall now and then. Inherent in our love for our pets, is the reluctance to leave them when we travel. This last weekend I attended my daughter's wedding in Buffalo, NY - and what a wedding it was! - and had to find someone to watch my Carmie.

This is no easy task. ALL of the usual suspects were attending the wedding! I couldn't ask my neighbor's boy, although Jill (the neighbor) has offered his help - because Carmie doesn't know him. The list of folks I can call on to tend to my puppy is short - primarily because she's too important to trust to just anyone. I'm sure you know what I mean. Normally, I leave my son in charge - but, as I said, he was going to be at the wedding.

Since we rarely go away and leave her for any length of time - I didn't even think about who was going to take care of her while we were gone. Mind you, Buffalo is only an hour and a half away from our home in Rochester. So - we knew we could do the wedding thing and make it home for Carmie, too. Just not all in one day.

We did corral my fiance's daughter, Elizabeth, to help out. Elizabeth is the perfect dog sitter. She loves dogs as much as we do. But, she could only come in the morning for Carmie. So... we had to high-tail it home in the wee hours after the wedding, after all.

Imagine how much easier it would have been if we'd been able to take Carmie with us? I mean - what's the big deal? I'm willing to sign a waver stating that I will take proper care of her, keep her out of trouble, make sure she doesn't mess up the beds or the carpet. Whatever it takes, just to have her with us - and comfortable.

That's available more and more now. In fact, I was reading in Businessweek that Houston is a pet-friendly city. According to Executive Life - The Business Traveler - reporter Kate Murphy writes that "The American Automobile Assn. rates [Houston] the most per-friendly city in America." Kewl!

Further evidence shows that Houston's Museum of Fine Arts has a new exhibit dedicated to dogs: The Dog in Art from the Renaissance to Today. Of course, cats are represented, too, in The Cat's Meow.

Well, if only...maybe we'll catch up here on the East coast, and hotels or motels will start allowing pets. I know, there are some that do, already. But, they aren't widely advertised, now, are they? Why not? Gosh, pets are as important as kids - and they don't make us leave our kids at home!

So, what do you do with your pets, when you go away?? Do you have a dedicated pet-sitter? Do you kennel your pets? Do you take them with you?

Comments

[Dog sitting]

I've done a little bit of dog sitting for my neighbor, who has a beautiful golden retriever. They are some of the most wonderful dogs to own, and I'm thinking about getting one myself.

[An]

Thanks for joining the Carnival this week! Glad everything went well for Carmie :) We have 6 dogs and normally, pet sitting isn't a problem, my friend comes over and takes care of them and the guys from work come in, so someone is here every couple of hours. She's a certified pet sitter. But, she was also my Matron of Honor in July and we were going to be 560 miles away from home for three weeks. We had a friend of my son's come and stay at the house, it was someone the dogs knew and thankfully, all went well. When we only had D'Artagnan, we stayed at Holiday Inns on the East Coast. More and more hotels, like someone else mentioned are pet friendly now, even the Hard Rock in Orlando. I suggest finding a certified pet sitter if you feel you can't take Carmie next time, but you may get lucky and find a pet friendly hotel :)

[Dianna Leach]

We wouldn't dare inconvenience our two cats, Putty and Xerox, by kennelling them while we are away or--dare I even say it--think of taking them with us. (Cats don't travel!!!!) Fortunately for us, we currently have a rather nice arrangement with our upstairs neighbors, who also happen to have two cats--Tito and Matteo--where we cat-sit for each other when we travel out-of-town. (So far, we've been lucky in that our scheduled have meshed perfectly--knock on wood!)

FYI: I found an interesting website in my Internet wanderings, though: http://www.doggeek.com.

[PetBoogaloo]

Have you seen the PetsHotels yet at PetSmart? They currently have about 32 locations, and plan on putting them in 240 stores.

The hotels certainly have a fancy lobby. (You should post a photo of their lobby on your blog). lol They play DVDs in the upgraded rooms. I'd be curious how many dogs actually watch DVDs. :-) My dog has yet to notice the television.

[Paula Chapman]

One interesting thing you may want to consider is to have your dog evaluated and recieve the AKC Canine Good Citizen Certification. Although it doesn't carry any liability insurances with it, it DOES prove that your animal has been tested for "good manners" as well as being safe around people and other dogs. Primarily, the dog has to have some basic obedience, allow strangers to approach and not freak out when another dog comes over.

[Chloe]

I can relate to the pet sitter dilema. Like Carmel, Reznor can be picky about his sitters. We once attempted a one night get away, and asked our neighbor to feed him dinner and let him out in the afternoon/evening/morning until we returned. No problem, or so we thought.

We arrived home Sunday afternoon around 2, about 24 hours after we left. Everything seemed fine. Reznor was as excited as ever to see us, and happy to hit the backyard for some laps. When I headed over to the neighbors to gather our key I found out that our sweet Reznor turned into Kujo in our absence. He would not let our neighbor in the door. He stood his ground, growling and barking at her with every hair that could stand at full attention. She even attempted to come over with some steak to win him over, but he wasn't interested! What she didn't know is that Reznor is very good at putting up a front, but very cowardly when you actually test it. Had she just stepped into the house he would have run away whining, tail between his legs. But, she didn't want to push a dog that was so good at appearing to be ready to kill. Can't say I blame her.

The most amazing part was that there was not a drop of anything in the house. Reznor decided to not touch his food, and minimally touch his water, while we were gone. Needless to say, he chowed when we got there.

We have since given up on the neighbor watching thing, and have found a wonderfully reliable, pet loving friend to help out while we are away. Phew!