Traveling With Pets
Part Nine: Restrictions
The eighth day of our travels, we woke to temperatures in the twenties. Bryce Canyon National Park was the last big stop of our trip. We weren’t about to let a little cold weather end our exploration.
Two senior citizens, a seven-month-old English Springer Spaniel, and a rescue tuxedo kitten had survived over a week in our new-to-us RV. We brought heavy coats, not expecting to need them. Sure, it was winter, but we were in the desert Southwest.
Strider has a Carhartt coat. He would be fine. But tiny Legolas would not fare well in the frigid morning air, even riding inside his kitty backpack with a blanket. The kitten stayed in the RV while the geezers and puppy hiked along the Sunrise to Sunset Point paved walkway.
We were limited in where we could go. There are trails into Bryce Canyon. It would have been nice to get up close to the hoodoos. But pets were strictly forbidden from hiking the dirt trails. Still, we felt satisfied with the views.
We only stayed one night at Bryce. Perhaps if the weather had been warmer, another day would have been nice. There are miles of paved footpaths and bike trails where our dog would be permitted.
We were all getting tired of travel. Well, maybe just the humans and dog. Kitten Legolas didn’t seem to mind. Perhaps being so young, he thought this was simply how life is.
We’d put a lot of miles on the RV. Although we were ready to head toward home, there was no way we were going to attempt a marathon drive. Strider wouldn’t survive emotionally. The humans couldn’t survive physically.
After a cold morning admiring the scenery at Bryce, we hit the highway. Another roadside attraction caught my eye.
There was no entry fee. The log cabin sat off the road a bit, along with a barn and farm implements. “Butch Cassidy,” as he would later be known, and five of his dozen siblings lived with their parents in the one-room cabin. No wonder he took off to start a life of crime at age eighteen.
Traveling with an energetic puppy who didn’t enjoy long stints in the RV encouraged us to stop more often. Maybe we would have zoomed right by this historic cabin if we hadn’t been mindful of Strider’s need to get a breath of fresh air.
Restrictions: Watching Strider leap about playfully at the end of his long leash, we realized how much he missed having the run of our backyard. He had to be leashed or confined to the RV the entire trip, except for two brief romps in service station dog parks. We humans felt the pain of not being able to hike through the hoodoos at Bryce. No dogs allowed!
Lessons learned: The trip was tough on an energetic young dog. If we’d stayed longer, or the weather had been nicer, maybe the humans would have taken turns exploring without our puppy on the no-dog trails. But we could tell the continued confinement of our dog was wearing on his mental health.
Questions: We were facing the last leg of the trip, heading home. Would we travel with pets again?
Find out in the tenth and final installment of Traveling with Pets.
Novels with animal companions by Catherine Dilts:
The Body in the Cattails, available from Harlequin Worldwide Mystery
The Body in the Hayloft, available here
Co-authored with Merida Bass: Grandpa’s New Year’s Relocation, and Grandma’s Valentine Abduction
YA series co-authored with Merida Bass (jungle animals): Frayed Dreams, and Broken Strands
The entire Rose Creek Mystery series, the Tapestry Tales series, and the Ninja Grandparent Placement Mysteries, are available at Basecamp Books and Adventure located at 3918 Maizeland Rd, Colorado Springs, CO 80909 (phone: 1 719 596 1621)