Our Recent Road Trip

I mentioned driving Whiskers to Chicago and then going to Michigan to visit a friend but didn't say much about the trip.  Actually I've been very busy lately so I haven't posted much at all.  But our road trip was good

Whiskers did  much better on the drive than I had expected.  We had to leave about 2:30 am, so the first several hours we were driving in the dark.  I got a mild sedative from the vet for Whiskers and it helped a lot.  She peed in her carrier about two hours into the trip, so I got her out, cleaned the carrier, cleaned her up as best I could, gave her another pill and let her stay out of the carrier for most of the rest of the drive.  She explored the van, then slept under the back seat for a couple hours, then curled up in my lap for most of the rest of the driver.  It was really sweet.  I was sad to give her up.

Isaac got to play with my friend's service dog Jake, when we dropped Whiskers off.  He had a great time and it was good for him to get some play time and exercise before the drive to Michigan, which ended up being a super long drive because the traffic and road construction was just awful.

We stopped at dinner time and took a nice walk, then ate our dinner together in the van.  Then we drove a few more hours before stopping for the night.  We slept in the van that night and I actually slept pretty well. 

We finally made it to the home of my friend in Michigan and it turned out Isaac had learned to behave nicely around cats from Whiskers.  She has a cat named Tigger and  Tigger is blind and I was worried that Isaac would scare him by being his enthusiastic self, but no.  Isaac was more interested in sniffing everything in the house than in pestering the cat.  I guess he got used to cats from Whiskers and is no longer so fascinated by them. 

I don't think Cayenne had the same effect because she mostly just slept on the couch or sat in the window, which was right next to the couch.  It was a big event if Cayenne walked across the living room, seriously.  That probably happened once a week or less, on average.  But after seeing Whiskers roam all over the house, Isaac is no longer fascinated and excited every time a kitty moves.

I noticed this last year when we went to Detroit and I noticed it again this time.  For some reason, people up there are much less likely to pet a service dog without asking than they are where I live.  In fact, not only did no one pet him without asking the whole time we were there, I don't think anyone asked if they could pet him, either.  By contrast, today alone I had two people pet without asking and two more ask to pet.