Oh, the drama

So, I'm in Virginia. The trip went pretty well. The day we left, though, was all drama. I dropped my dogs off for boarding on Wednesday night. I got the first call three hours later. Gideon had broken out of a crate (this facility uses crates instead of kennel runs). The owner told me she put him in a different crate and then watched him break out of it. She said that for a dog with so few teeth, it was pretty impressive. She said she would see how the night went, but I could tell things were probably going to take a turn for the worse.

When I woke up on Thursday morning (after a restless "what am I gonna do" kind of night), I had an email from her asking me to find a Plan B. I know she felt badly that it wasn't working out, so I wasn't mad - just upset. After whipping myself into a minor frenzy and nearly breaking into tears, I sent an email to my fellow rescue volunteers to ask if anyone knew of a boarding facility where I could take Giddy. With the holiday weekend fast approaching, I feared that most places would be booked solid. My friend Kim stepped forward immediately and offered to take him. She has a couple of kennel runs in her garage. I have never been so relieved in my life. I am blessed when it comes to friends, I'll tell you that. Several other fellow volunteers also stepped forward and offered to take the little degenerate.

On our way out of town, we picked up Giddy from the first boarding facility (Karl was welcome to stay, so I left him there) and dropped him off with Kim. I told her that if she ever needs a kidney or anything, it's all hers.

We drove to Toledo and made it there around 2:30 a.m. We spent the rest of the night in a room at the Super 8 that smelled vaguely like . . . urine, with hints of mildew. Thank goodness we were only there for a few hours before hitting the road again.

The kid did pretty well on the trip. She watched a lot of movies and colored in her coloring books. She has developed a phobia about public restrooms. No, it's not the sanitation issue. It's that the automatically flushing toilets always flush on her before she's done. She no like. So we did bring her little potty and I'm sure a lot of Midwestern tourists are still puzzling over the site they saw - a little curly-headed girl pooping on a potty in the back of a mini van. Also, we had no idea what the etiquette is for disposing of human waste. P ended up carting a pile of poo into a gas station to scrape it out in the bathroom there. Quelle adventure.

So, that's the story so far. Oh, and someone is watching our house while we are gone, in case you are reading this and have thoughts of breaking in and absconding with our 15-year-old television.

Comments

Camp Program Director said…
We bought a little travel potty for our daughter which uses diapers to catch the "stuff". The diapers just go over the seat and you roll 'em up and toss 'em when you're done. With some rigging, I wonder if your little potty can do the same?
July 5, 2008 at 3:38 PM
Mary said…
Bless Kim's heart.... I have to say for myself leaving my dogs to be kenneled is the hardest part of going on a trip. My first experience was the worst, I really thought I did my homework but not enough. So from then on... whereever they went was EXTREMELY investigated. I do know of a REALLY nice place in Kaukauna though in case you get into a bind sometime. Anyway, so glad to hear you all made it there safely and what a great idea to take the toidy along!! I mean really at that age and traveling it's got to be better than stoping sometimes anyway! Don't feel too bad about your motel either, we went up north this weekend (Austin's first adventure and I had to keep him from killing the chipmunks) and after we slept in the bed we met the 24 lb. spider who made it his bed also. GROSS!! Have a nice time on your trip!!
July 6, 2008 at 8:28 PM
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