Speckles' Story
When my wife and I answered this ad in a local
paper, we had no idea what adventures it would bring. We are retired
"empty-nesters", having raised three children who now live scattered
throughout the southeast, and we only see our grandchildren occasionally. We
have had pets throughout our lives, but at that particular time the
"pet-nest" was empty, too.
I have always loved cocker spaniels, particularly black and white ones, and when
we went to look at the puppy, of course we brought her home. This was in April
1998, and "Speckles", as we named her because of her numerous little
black spots (ticking), was 12 weeks old.
As the weeks went by, Speckles became our
constant companion - including potty calls at
dawn - and we didn't want to travel without her. The only problem was, how
could we visit our
grandchildren and take her along? One grandchild is allergic to dogs, and
the others have houses full of dogs or intolerant cats, so we would have to stay
in motels and leave her alone there for most of the day, if we could find nearby
motels that would take pets.
So we finally came up with a solution common to
retired folks - we bought a small travel trailer. That's right, a $13,000
doghouse.
The world of RVing was completely new to us, but we entered it with enthusiasm.
We were safety conscious, so we had our Ford Explorer fitted with electric
brakes, had load-levelers installed, and a sway bar. We spent day after
day outfitting the trailer with all the comforts of home, including a television
and VCR. We sent away for RV site directories. We even searched for
sites that were modem-compatible.
We acclimated Speckles to the trailer by bringing her inside it when we were
outfitting it and by making a short trip with her. We bought her a little
bed that just fit under the dinette table, and she had her very own Tupperware
container for her dog food.
Finally in November we were ready for a real trip. Speckles was 10 months
old, housebroken, and enjoyed the short trips we had taken her on. So we
set out for Atlanta, Charlotte NC, Knoxville TN, Richmond VA, and Bluffton SC.
The trip was planned for two weeks, and we would, for the most part, park the
trailer in the yards of our relatives while we visited. Then we could see
that Speckles had the attention she needed during the day, and she would sleep
with us at night.
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