Monday, June 8, 2009

Dog Goes RVing...

Travels with Poochie…In the beginning...

In 1997, after looking at it for 2 years, I finally bought a VW camper ~ making it easier for me to pick up and go. I planned my first trip in Winnie, my camper, to Hemlock Hill in Connecticut. In Travels with Charley, Steinbeck’s travel companion was his dog Charlie, a big French Poodle. So naturally Poochie, my mixed Pomeranian, was to be my travel companion.

Traveling with Poochie, I can relate to what Steinbeck said about his traveling companion – she contributed much to the trips. Although, on route to some destination, she was sleep only to awake periodically with the expression – are we there yet? Poochie often was the initiator of conversation, with folks commenting and inquiring as to “What a cute little dog, what breed is it?” She was a real charmer in town; however, back at the campsite this adorable, little pooch reverted to the wilderness beast protecting our campsite territory with a bark that made one think she might actually attack, which she almost did to a park ranger on one occasion. It was amazing to see the sweet, mild mannered, little, city dog turn into the wilderness dog once she was exposed to camping!

Traveling with Poochie was great! However, there was one most terrifying experience. In the Catskills Mountains at Kenneth Wilson state campgrounds one late afternoon, I decided to sit in the camper and read; Poochie comfortably sat looking through the screen enclosure of the open camper door. Unfortunately, I feel asleep and when I awoke – it was dark and Poochie was not in the camper! Panic stricken I jumped up yelling for Poochie while trying to put some shoes on, grab flashlight, and get out of the camper; I was thinking my poor little dog had wandered off in the woods and was lost. As I stumbled out the camper, she came running out of the darkness with a horrific odor; she had slipped out under the screen enclosure to confront a skunk – and lost. The odor in the camper and around the campsite horrible, but I was just so grateful that I had not lost my companion. After that experience, knowing that she could slip away, I put her on her leash; if I was relaxing and might possibly fall asleep. However, hopefully she might have learned a lesson about chasing after furry, black and white creatures with a strange scent.

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