Kasey's Long, Strange Trip

Last weekend, my family and I drove to Maine to attend the wedding of our cousin Merril (aka my adopted sister).

We decided to take our 10 year old dog, Kasey along for the weekend rather than board her at a petsitter, where she is unceremoniously placed in a crate for the better part of her visit. Since she has never been on a car trip other than the 5 minute drive to the vet or sitter, I knew the 7 hour trip would be challenging. We made plenty of space in the back of our mini-van and stuffed her in there with the luggage. She proceeded to cry for the first two hours which I found extremely nerve-wracking, though no one else seemed to notice. Then we stopped for her to have a bathroom break and she realized the opening of the trunk was her escape hatch. When we put her back in, she decided to stand staring at the trunk hatch for the remaining 4 hours waiting for it to open signalling freedom. Once at Merril's house she was greeted at the door by her 3 dogs. Instantly surrounded, Kasey stood horrified as they began to invasively sniff her every body part. The next thing I knew, she had bolted for the open back door followed by the pack of hounds. By the time I caught up, she had run out onto their deck and in an apparent act of desperation jumped into their swimming pool. Not only had she never been on a lengthy car trip but my beloved pet had never been in water, so I was shocked to see that she could actually swim. I had always heard that canines know how to swim instinctively, but a friend of mine had tested this theory by putting his dog in a pool only to watch in horror as it sunk to the bottom and stood there like an idiot. Anyway, Mike finally fished Kasey out as the other dogs stood on the deck staring in apparent disbelief at the measures my dog had taken to get away from them. I immediately thanked God that we had not been on the top of a tall building because I was certain she would have jumped in an effort to commit suicide. Thankfully, after her apparent gang-bang and subsequent dip in the pool all the animals calmed down.

Allow me to introduce Merril's three dogs to you. They are sweet and loving, but nutty as fruitcakes. Tessa is a large mutt, with one brown eye and one blue eye, Ruby is a small mutt that takes every opportunity to escape, and Izzy is a Pug that apparently was dropped on it's head as a puppy and is supposedly retarded as a result. Anytime I tried to feed my dog, Izzy would dive head first into the bowl and gobble the food. She also spent a lot of time barking at Tessa (the big one) as if to boss her around, unaware that Tessa could swat her like a fly if she wasn't so good natured.

Needless to say, once Kasey realized that we were packing the car to return home she began howling at us and running toward the front door as if to rush us along. She actually laid down in the car ride home instead of standing and waiting for the trunk to open. Once home, she found a peaceful spot and slept for 24 hours straight.