The Dog

Ah, Bridget.  The little beagle dog who turned three during our vacation and often gets a bad rap for her barking at little children walking home from school and anyone who comes within fifty feet of our home's perimeter.

We took her to the vet several times making sure all her shots are up to date, checking on an ear infection, and running tests for seizures.  We also had them give us a bottle of sedatives to relax her on the road and possibly in the hotel because I envisioned barking fits at everyone who happened to walk down the corridor and possibly anyone in the pool, even if she couldn't see the pool.

On the day we were locking up the house and heading out I couldn't find the bottle of medication.  I was overwhelmed and hot and frustrated and annoyed with myself.  Where did I put it? We had the car already packed and were taking crap out and looking through boxes and in glove compartments...nothing.  Ugh.  So, before we headed to our first night in northern Idaho, we stopped at the vet again and bought ANOTHER bottle of sedatives.

Well, the first day, she was a dream! She panted a bit in the backseat (we kept her in a crate) and we planned several stops along the way in which we had a total routine down: dog first.  So, before anyone headed off to the bathroom we got her out of the car to go potty and I grabbed the traveling food/water dish and gave her water.  We fed her only twice and every time we stopped, she went potty.  She didn't bark at anyone at the rest stops (well, unless she truly didn't like someone and on the rare occasion she would bark at people...it was kinda funny who she picked to bark at).

She didn't have any accidents in the car or in the hotels.  She hardly barked.  Initially she was a little uneasy in the car but she got used to it to the point where she preferred to be in the car, in her crate.  She ate fine, she slept at night fine.  Not once did she require taking out at 3am.  She slept on "her" blanket on our bed every single night.

Other than the fact that we couldn't sight see the way I would have wanted to...she was a dream traveler.  We ended up ordering take out or having something delivered to our room and we ate dinner in our hotel room...in the mornings Larry took the boys for breakfast and then Jennifer and I went down to eat. And Larry and I alternated who took the kids to the pool.

And, all that medicine? We never used it.  Now we have over thirty dollars of pet sedatives and we didn't use any of it (I still haven't found that first bottle).  After the first day we decided to chance it and see what day two brought.  Basically she was so "exhausted" after the drive that she got into the hotel and crashed all night.

I never would have thought that Bridget would have been such a great dog to travel with.  Plus, everyone at the rest stops all wanted to pet her because let's face it...she is damn cute.