The ONLY thing I hate about cruising

[rucruizin]

I'm sittng here on the computer readind the threads and getting more excited by the second about our upcoming cruise when suddenly out of the corner of my eye I see...my big soft, sweet, beautiful Border Collie boy stretch, wag his little tail, look at me with those soft brown eyes and lay his little head back down.

 

OOooh the pain! The pain of the realization that I have to leave my dogs for 12 days. No cold nose, no soft tounge to kiss my cheek, no fluffy coat to cuddle with....:( No soft brown eyes to look at me like I'm the love of his life...

 

I have terrible guilt pains when I think about leaving my prescious little doggies behind.

[NoNoNanette]

After a recent Conquest cruise, a group of us (strangers) hopped on a shuttle to our parking lot.

 

Our doggies were the topic of conversation. Not one person mentioned children or grandchildren.:) I got a real chuckle out of that!

[RevNeal]

out of the corner of my eye I see...my big soft, sweet, beautiful Border Collie boy stretch, wag his little tail, look at me with those soft brown eyes and lay his little head back down.

 

OOooh the pain! The pain of the realization that I have to leave my dogs for 12 days. No cold nose, no soft tounge to kiss my cheek, no fluffy coat to cuddle with.... No soft brown eyes to look at me like I'm the love of his life...

 

OUCH. DOUBLE OUCH.

I know what you mean.

For about 2 or 3 days I'm ok. Then, I start to pine for my puppy. Your's is a lovely Border Collie. Mine -- Dorcas -- is a Basset Hound. Bassets have eyes that can make you feel guilty about not letting her have your whole dinner. :)

 

I'll miss this darling girl:

 

 

She's my sweetie!

[Robin7]

So what do you all do with your puppies when you leave? We lost our dear, sweet, 14-year-old Maltese just before Thanksgiving. Now our 7-year-old Lab gets destructive when left alone. I used to just have our nephew come over and tend the dogs. Now I have to pay $16 a day to board the big goofball!

 

Robin

[K&RCurt]

We found out something very interesting about our cute little ****z tzu when we left her at a kennel for a week. She was in a huge (for her) kennel with unlimited access to an outdoor run area.

 

Normally at home she is an "inside" lap dog. Her main source of activity is running away from one of our cats, who chases her around the house for fun in the evenings.

 

When we went to pick her up the kennel owner told us she would only come inside to eat and sleep. The rest of the time she was out in the "run". The week we were away it rained 6 of the 8 days were were gone. She stayed outside, rolling in the grass and mud for most of that time! It took the groomer 3 hours to get her cleaned up before we picked her up!

 

Now, we don't feel so bad leaving her behind. She gets to live out her "wild side" while we are gone!

[Old As Dirt Mom]

So what do you all do with your puppies when you leave? We lost our dear, sweet, 14-year-old Maltese just before Thanksgiving. Now our 7-year-old Lab gets destructive when left alone. I used to just have our nephew come over and tend the dogs. Now I have to pay $16 a day to board the big goofball!

 

Robin

 

We are fortunate that we have many relatives around us who all either have dogs or like dogs, so our Welsh Pembroke corgi stays with them when we travel, and he has a wonderful vacation of his own. In our area, we have several dog-sitting services that provide in-house doggie care. Is that an option available to you? (It's definitely not cheap, though.)

[ekerr19]

On our last trip, we used a home pet sitting service. Our dog (a Siberian Husky) can pretty much stay outside year round, unless it gets below zero - and we have three cats that do not go outside. The cost to board all four animals was pretty high, so we tried the home pet sitter, she came twice a day, played with cats and walked the dog, fed the cats (they are spoiled and used to eating moist food two times daily) and made sure they had water, clean litter etc.

 

She also brought in my mail, turned on and off lights, watered house plants and potted plants on my deck.

 

She charged about $20 per day - which was a huge savings over the kennels at our vets office. Plus our dog is getting older and doesn't like to be boarded at all anymore.

 

We think we've found the perfect solution for our situation, thankfully. Leaving the dog was heartbreaking, she cried and carried on so, DH had to carry her (no easy feat - she's about 90 lbs.) into the vet's office each time - it got to be that she started whimpering when we pulled into the vet's parking lot.

[rucruizin]

We have five Border Collies...I know, I know.

 

But we rescue them, they are high energy dogs that need the right kind of attention. So when the wrong kind of poeple buy these wonderful, intelligent dogs and don't have enough activity for them the dogs get destructive, run away, of find other annoyances to try and get attention. Beacuse of their popularity it happens all the time. I even counseled a woman who said her dog refused to come when she called and didn't respond to its name. In further talking to her I realized that it was sipmly a matter of her dog not liking the name she had chosen. Yes, these dogs are highly, highly intelligent.

 

When we leave the dogs are outside...they have shelter, feeders and a full acre to chase each other around on. We always have someone if my daughter isn't home...who comes over everyday to check water and make sure everyone is upright.

 

We have one deaf dog and when we left town this summer our friends daugher was watching the dogs. She went by and couldn't find him. She called and called but he never came. I got a frantic call from her mother that one was missing, I panicked until I realized which one it was. I simply reminded her that he was deaf and sleeps like a rock, sure enough he was there that afternoon.

 

Hey Rev, can you tell me how to post a picture of my dogs?

[RevNeal]

So what do you all do with your puppies when you leave?

 

Dorcas goes to stay with her grandmama and grandpapa -- my parents :) -- if Christopher and I are going on a cruise together. Otherwise, I often leave Dorcas with Christopher. He loves her, has a great back yard for her to play in during the day, and she adores him. He lets her get away with murder. Often times, if I'm gone for more than a week or two, he'll trade her off with our parents for a week or so. Either way, she's happy and well take care of. Oh, sure, she's usually mad at me when I get home ... but that doesn't last for very long. :)

[lawbrob]

I'll have to admit...the only thing I hate about cruIsing is GETTING OFF THE BOAT AT THE END OF THE CRUISE....HA.

[RevNeal]

Hey Rev, can you tell me how to post a picture of my dogs?

 

The way I do it is I have photos of Dorcas up on my photogallery on the internet, and I just put a display link to the photo I want to present here. The coding is automatic ... just click on the little square that has the mountain range in it and it will ask you for the web address of the picture you want to display in the post. :)

 

Here are other pictures of dorcas from my gallery.

 

http://homepage.mac.com/revneal/PhotoAlbum1.html

[IggleDoer]

It's great having our velcro dog back after a nice cruise.

[Robin7]

In our area, we have several dog-sitting services that provide in-house doggie care. Is that an option available to you? (It's definitely not cheap, though.)

 

I would need someone to stay IN the house at all times! Heh. Over Christmas, my nephew came over and fed the dog and played with him and let him in at night and out in the morning, until Buddy ate the backing off a rug and chewed a HUGE hole in the wall. Then Eric decided the dog should stay outside all night, and Buddy proceeded to bark so much that the neighbors called the police at 3am! My husband (who is all bark and no bite:D ) votes for a one-way trip to the pound every time we bail Buddy out of the boarder's, but it is our only choice.

 

Robin

[Bill S]

We have two female shelties and hate to leave them behind, too. :(

For shorter cruises, we use a pet sitters much like ekerr does. For longer cruises, however, we prefer to leave them with our vet -we reserve a double run which can hold both of them - that way if they do develop any medical problems, the vet is right there.

Our kids live up in Reno and our oldest son has a huge lot for his two dogs, but it is such a long drive (7 to 8 hours), we seldom opt for him to dog sit for us. To us, leaving the dogs is the only down-side to cruising.

[Krazy Kruizers]

As much as we love dogs, we don't have any. Couldn't stand the thought of them being in the kennels for weeks at a time. And we cruise a lot and are away too much. Had an aunt once that had to leave her dog in the kennels for 2 weeks - he pined himself to death. I couldn't stand that.

[Randyk47]

We have two cats and we have somebody come in and care for them while we're gone. We miss them but we also have to have a life. However, the cats will be much put out by us being gone and no doubt we're hear about it when we return. :)

[K&RCurt]

We have two cats and we have somebody come in and care for them while we're gone. We miss them but we also have to have a life. However, the cats will be much put out by us being gone and no doubt we're hear about it when we return. :)

 

In my experience there is a huge difference between how cats and dogs react to our absence (and this is why I'm a "Dog Person").

 

As I said in a previous post our dog loves going to the kennel as she gets to be "down and dirty" while we are gone. However, when we return, she is SO happy to see us, jumping up, spinning in circles, wagging her tail. She will spend the next week sitting in one of our laps.

 

The cats, who stay home with someone feeding, cleaning litter boxes and checking on them daily have a much different reaction. We walk in the door, they saunter down the stairs, give us a dirty look and go back upstairs. They will have NOTHING to do with anyone for at least a week!

 

I can't understand what anyone sees in cats!

[ger_77]

There's a qote that we've seen somewhere and it's really stuck with us:

Dogs have owners,

Cats have staff.

My DH realizes that we don't own a cat, she owns the people who pay the mortgage.:D

 

Smooth Sailing! :) :) :)

 

[yiddishkopf]

When I had cats, especially the spoiled princess -- Agnes, a magnificent Himilayan reacted as soon as she saw luggage! When she saw a suitcase, she stuck her nose in the air and proceeded to ignore me. I had a wonderful neighbor whom I paid to come in to care for her and it was a good arrangement for both of us. While I was gone, Agnes ALWAYS, but ALWAYS threw up on me bed. Go figure.

 

When I was selling my house, Agnes was the age that she thought the whole world was her litter box, so I put her in a foster home. She lived until the age of 18!

 

The one good thing about being without a cat, especially a Himilayan, is that my clothes are finally free from cat hair!

[Bramcruiser]

We have two cats and have to leave them behind. However we have been fortunate to have friends who manage to look after them while we are away. Still the cats tend to become the topic of conversation (at least privately) while we are away by some point. Last cruise our 6 month old kitten grew up in a week and I just couldn't believe the huge monster sitting in our living room when we returned. Made me realize how much I missed.

 

Still will I give up cruising? NO WAY! Gotta escape the real world now and then and did not regret my last cruise. In fact a new cruise has been booked for this year. Only I haven't broke the news to the kitties yet!

[Lurker1]

The problem is not jsut crusing, it's any vacation where you can't take your pets.

 

After 26 years with various cats and dogs, we are petless, so feel no guilt when we travel. But guess what i think will happen when DS and family go to their time share in Orlando this summer? "Gee Mom and Dad, can you watch the grandpuppies?"

 

The "grandcat" will be left home with food, water, a cat sitter, and a cat-door, I hope . . .

[KalenaD]

We are lucky, we have a 15 year old neighbor boy who watches both our dogs when we go on a cruise, his parents keep an eye on our house as well. They are much happier at home, especially my rescue dog Honey (the gold one in my avatar) she was abused and abandoned, and would not do well in a kennel. As for my Border collie, Jacy, as long as she is the queen of her domain, she is happy. She tries to pretend she only tolerates Honey, but we know better. She has done much better when we go on vacation since we rescued Honey. We are also lucky they do well in the house, out of 3 vacations of 8 days or longer since we got Honey, the only casualty in the house has been a dish towel.

 

RUcruisin, does this look familiar?

 

[rucruizin]

oooh, kalena yes...very familiar. What a sweet, beautiful girl.:)

[DAllenTCY]

I agree with the original posting...if it weren't so hearwrentching to leave our "children" at home, we would be at sea far more often.

[Cruiseoften]

OUCH. DOUBLE OUCH.

I know what you mean.

For about 2 or 3 days I'm ok. Then, I start to pine for my puppy. Your's is a lovely Border Collie. Mine -- Dorcas -- is a Basset Hound. Bassets have eyes that can make you feel guilty about not letting her have your whole dinner. :)

 

I'll miss this darling girl:

 

 

She's my sweetie!

 

I believe you but - have you ever looked into the eyes of a King Charles Spaniel??? :)