Sucker for Travel

I love to travel.  I love my pets.  These things don’t always go along so great, but my family is stubborn enough to try again and again.  In fact, we have planned entire vacations based on locations that my dog would be welcome to tag along.  By the end of his life, our family dog had marked the majority of the east coast as his territory.  Alfalfa has traveled a good amount too.  Only a few times has he done long distances, but I often tote that giant cage along if I am going to my parents house for the day.  My little hamster friend used to make the four-hour commute with me to and from college for every break, so all the pets have some miles on them.  So, if you want to learn from my mistakes, let me describe a few situations that I would avoid.

I was going away for vacation, and needed to take all the animals to different houses for bird/dog/hamster-sitting.  I had the birdie in the front, and the hamster and the dog in back.  My poor dog’s life long dream is to eat the other pets. And there they were! Right in front of him.  He was so beside himself that he couldnt decide which pet to harass.  All the excitement got the tiel riled up, and he was squawking and climbing around his cage in a frenzy.   Which, I’m sure you can imagine only further encourage my dog.  So my left hand was dedicated to steering, while my right hand was dedicated to stabilizing the bird-cage, trying to keep the dog in the back of the car, and, of course, changing gears in my stick shift car.  So, lesson #1: try to separate the species!

I’ve also learned some lessons about noise control.  You know that nice bell your bird plays with? That makes a sweet little tinkling noise as he bumps it around?  Yea, try listening to that clank against the side of the cage for a drive down to the beach.  Every time it clanks, your bird, if he is anything like my little tiel, will screech his response.  No matter how many times it clanks, he will respond EVERY SINGLE TIME.  Pretty quickly you will pull over at a rest stop and take out the toys.  So, lesson #2: save yourself the stop and take the toys out before you go. 

On the topic of surviving long trips, I have to give a lot of credit to my little hamster, who probably spent the largest percentage of his life on the road compared to any of my other animals.  As I mentioned, this little guy, Shimmy, road-tripped the four hours between school and home for every break and every new semester.  I’ve learned a few basic lessons there, like #3–clean cages are a must.  Not only to you want to prevent any smell, but it’s also a little weird to have so much seed and bedding stuck in every crack and crevice of your car.  I’ve also learned to keep your cool.  I think my hamster is terribly cute, but there is something unnerving about a little rodent just staring at you.  I mean, if you put him in the passenger seat, he is just RIGHT THERE by your face, staring at you with those beady little eyes.  So lesson #4: through all the noise, mayhem, and even just the silent staring, keep your eyes on the road. 

Hamsters aren’t the only ones who stare.  Try being stuck in traffic when you have that many pets with you.  Trust me, people stare.  I was stuck on I-95 for ages when I had my hamster in the front seat, and about 12 different plants shoved in cup holders and boxes.  My bamboo plant gave me a little slap in the face every time I tried to look around, and I had to reach through a wall of basil cuttings to get into my purse in the other seat. So I’m going to just repeat lesson #4: keep your eyes on the road.  Or, just offer a smile.  Letting people laugh at your expense while stuck in traffic ain’t so bad.  We all need to laugh to get through the day. 

After all of these adventures, I still take my pets in the car, and I would recommend it to you too.  They like to know that they get to tag along, and I’m also grateful to have a little friend with me on the road.

Advertisement