A fellow blogger described taking a trip with his reactive dog Angst Hase on Siggles on Board. At the end he asked for comments about trips others have taken with their dogs. It made me think … and remember.
While Pettigrew loves the car, we don’t take him many places. In the beginning, he was destructive, chewing up the legs to chairs and scratching the seats.
Then there’s the fact that he sleeps on our sofa, which is not everyone’s cup of tea.
Even now his claws had scored grooves into our floor as he skids across the hall to bark at the mail carrier and then rumples the carpet as he rushes to the window to hurry her on her way.
It seemed like a lot to ask someone else to put up with these foibles.
But, early on, we did take him on one road trip. It was an overnight visit to my sister and her family. We arrived Saturday, well after mail delivery, and would be leaving Sunday. How much harm could he do in one night? Right?
At the halfway point in our trip, we stopped at Breezewood, PA where the Pennsylvania Turnpike and Route 70 meet. While my family headed off in search of lunch, I clicked on Pettigrew’s leash and we strolled over to visit the weeds growing between cracks in the asphalt until Pettigrew found just the right spot. It was not my most scenic pit stop.
When we finally arrived at my sister’s, we were happy to let him stretch his legs in her yard. The neighbor’s cat was teasing him, prancing along the top of the fence that separated the plots. They were each on their own side and the fence was too high for Pettigrew to either vault or reach the cat, so I wasn’t worried as long as my sister didn’t think the barking would irritate her neighbors.
While we were chatting, we noticed a blur of black in the neighbor’s yard, an ominous quiet, and then the scratching of a cat’s claws on bark as it scrambled for purchase high in a tree. Apparently, Pettigrew had found a hole and shimmied through. He’s good at that.
After pulling Pettigrew back into my sister’s house and watching the neighbor heading to his garage to get a ladder, I decided it would be prudent to take Pettigrew for a long, on-leash walk in the neighborhood. We needed to lay low until the cat was safely on the ground. All seemed calm when we returned and, as far as I know, the fire department was not needed to resolve the cat-stuck-in-a-tree fiasco.
Nowadays he goes on daytrips for hikes and other outings, but nights are spent tucked in on his very own sofa.
Ruth Polk 
On the plus side, though, he probably would not be whining “are we there yet?” five minutes after heading out for the trips we used to take with our kids to visit grandparents in Philadelphia or New York!
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Absolutely! He’s a very in-the-moment dog and sits up in the hatch back so he can gaze out the windows. As long as there is food, water, and periodic breaks, this could go on indefinitely as far as he’s concerned.
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You actually make it seem really easy with your presentation but I to find this matter to be actually one thing that I think I might never understand. It seems too complex and very extensive for me. I am taking a look ahead in your next submit, I will try to get the hold of it!
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Hi Alex, Thanks for taking the time to comment! Sounds like you too have a reactive dog in your life. With my blog posts I try to take a lighthearted look at some of the challenges; however, they are challenges. Pettigrew is a wonderful dog and I love him dearly. That’s not to say that I’ve had to learn a lot since he’s joined our family and i’m continuing to learn. He just makes it worth the effort.
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You really make it appear so easy together with your presentation but I in finding this matter to be really something which I feel I’d never understand. It kind of feels too complicated and very vast for me. I’m having a look ahead for your subsequent submit, I’ll try to get the grasp of it!
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Glad this post hit the spot! Hope you have a great day.
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You know, I hope, that he is always welcome to come visit. I believe his treeing the cat was a non-issue for our neighbors, and now, sadly, the cat is gone. There is plenty of other wildlife, though, to keep him entertained.
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Well, he’s mellowed and is content to watch squirrels go by now without feeling the need to chase them. It’s only when they are being provocative and taunting that he really feels compelled to show his stuff.Sorry the cat is gone. Yes, it is possible that I was the most traumatized of everyone from that incident.
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