ANOTHER ROAD TRIP!

Have dog, will travel. We had a fabulous shopping weekend in Freeport/Portland/Kittery/New Hampshire and of course Abby was along for the adventure. As you can see, she visited the big L.L. Bean store in Freeport and is sporting her nice new Yankee scarf, which she wore all weekend. She is a great traveller, a fantastic traveller to be exact. Although she is still adjusting to the new vehicle, which she still is not too sure that she likes, she travels along watching other cars and is just happy to be where the people are. We stayed at pet friendly hotel and upon check-in they asked us to leave our cell phone number so they could contact us in case the dog started to bark and disturbed the other guests......as if we were going to leave Little Abby in a hotel room by herself...NOT. Abby sat patiently in the car while we shopped and every once in a while we took her for a walk to stretch her legs and burn off some energy. She enjoyed watching all the people coming and going. We asked about a dog park and were told about a large "area" by a beach where people go and let their dogs off leash.....but not fenced in. We asked again in Kittery about a fenced-in dog park and luckily enough there was a delivery man who overheard our inquiry and directed us to a fenced-in dog park about 20 kilometers away. We paused because we didn't know if we wanted to drive 15 minutes to a dog park but we decided that Abby probably needed to air her pants. When we arrived at the park there were no other dogs around so we just entered and took off Abby's leash and let her go for a run. It wasn't until we were actually in the park that we realized it was a "private" dog park that required a membership....well la de da! Abby did her business and when I pulled a scoop bag from the dispenser I realized it was deodorized like a Pamper diaper, sort of baby powder scented. Oh my Lord, we hit the Cadillac of dog parks! There was a nice large rubbermaid covered container which held all the toys, balls etc. Not one bit of mess left behind from other dogs, two or three water tap areas with large stainless steel water bowls....it was a very nice dog park. We started to wonder if the park was under some sort of video surveillance and some "guard" from the building across the street was going to come and ask us to see our membership! We stayed about 30 minutes (took a couple of the fragrant designer poop bags) and then went on our way.

Abby loved the hotel room, it was large enough to play catch the ball and she learned to jump from bed to bed and in fact that became a big game. She was like a little kid, well she did just turn one year old. The only challenge of the entire weekend was that during the night when Abby heard different noises in the hallway or water running from the adjoining room, she stood up on the bed and would not settle down. She wanted us to know that something "dangerous" was just outside and that someone should get up to investigate. Long shopping days, no sleep at night, a happy doggie...priceless! Both mornings at 6:30 AM, just like clock work, Abby wanted up and out for her morning walk. After the walk we stopped at the little Cafe for coffee and the first morning, one of the workers noticed Abby and came outside to talk to her...he brought a freshly cooked sausage....that was a big hit! From his wallet, he pulled out a picture of his rescue dog and it looked really similar to Abby. He had rescued this little doggie from Albania, imagine that. It is amazing how our fur children seem to invite others to share their pet stories with complete strangers. Anyway, we had a nice chat with him and he invited us back the following morning for another sausage treat.
On our way home we reminisced about our last trip North on the I95 when we picked Abby Doggie up last January and how excited we were with our new little package. The snow covered rest areas where we stopped to let her pee were replaced with green grass and coloured leaves and she is now 40 pounds heavier and a whole lot taller. We wonder if she has any idea how much she is loved.... probably not but that is okay.
We arrived at the border security at Calais, Maine/St. Stephen, New Brunswick around 5:30PM on Sunday evening. We were all over the limit in purchases for our personal exemptions for our 48 hours stay in in the US so we thought we would put the back window down as we approached the booth so the nice Officer could see the cute little doggie and get distracted! tee hee The Officer asked the usual questions and then said "ladies, this is your lucky day! I would normally require you to go into the customs office to pay your taxes on the amount you are over but we are having an issue right now and no one is allowed in the office and I have been asked to keep the bridge moving". So he waved us on and away we went. The following morning we heard on the News that there were 5 people who tried to cross the bridge on foot and had no identification and the car they left on the other side contained a suspicious package and possible firearms. The same News report said that around 6:00PM the border crossing was actually closed for a few hours! Phew....good timing for us!
Abby has completed the 4th class in level II obedience, 4 more classes to go. She is doing well, although she has moments that come and go during class! When the instructor says "if you are comfortable, take your dog off leash for the next exercise and if you are unsure of your dog, leave them on leash". Abby can be taken off leash during these exercise and she always does what she is suppose to do, well most of the time. Once, just once, she was practicing the long distance "stay" command and when she was given the command "Abby come" she is suppose to come directly to the person and assume the sit position. Last week she "stayed" in the sit position, as she was suppose to do, but when given the "come" command she came running alright but forgot the finishing sit and ran right into Mamma...wham! They have started introducing some distraction training and have other dogs doing different activities while some dogs practice exercises like the stay and come. Abby loves class, probably because she is so social. Until next time....