In case you didn't know, Girlfriend and I are headed to Atlanta tomorrow for a long weekend! YAY for getting away, YAY for road trip, YAY for all of it....except...I had to drop my baby off at the boarding kennel today. I tried every other avenue believe me-my roommate is going away, my neighbors are going away, and there is no one left to watch him who can commit to the time he needs. I found a good kennel where he gets lots of play time, has good boarding conditions, etc. still I have been agonizing about this since I realized no one that knows him could watch him. Since he was a rescue dog I didn't want him to think that I was abandoning him or anything negative.
This morning I felt like I was sending my first born child off to sleep away summer camp. Seriously. I labeled his name on his food, his treats, I let him pick out three of his favorite toys to bring (stop laughing...he really picked them out and they go as follows: 1) squishy tennis ball-it was a squeaky ball until he played with it too much and broke the squeaker inside 2) rope from his Aunt B-a.k.a. my roommate 3) rope ball-the best of both worlds-it's a ball and a rope in one!) and put them in a bag with his name on it. After everything was labeled and set, we drove (well I drove, he rode in the backseat, but anyway...) over to where he was going to be boarded. He was SUPER excited on the ride-I mean food and toys were coming, this had to be good! He was pretty excited when we got there and were waiting, while I was talking to the receptionist, until....it was time for me to leave. Then it quickly changed from, "Momma (that's what he calls me-he's a southern dog-don't judge) this is awesome! What can I play with?" to "Momma? You're not coming with me? Did I do something wrong?" I had to keep it together while his little brown eyes were looking at me all confused and he furrowed his little eyebrows...geez I'm going to start crying again....stop laughing. To make it even worse when they took him to the back he started whimpering...oh I lost it inside. I got back to my car and burst into tears, because seriously, I just left my baby for the first time and he started whimpering...which prompted me to call my mom and let her laugh at me, then console me, and affirm me that I did just drop him off for summer camp and he will be just fine.
EVERYTHING inside of me wants to call and check on him (yes, I am THAT lesbian animal parent, in case you skimmed the middle of this post and are just realizing the CRAZY that is going on) but I know he is fine...he's just my little boy and I worry about him. What if the other dogs don't like him? What if the other dogs don't want to play with him? Or play too rough with him? What if he has to go potty and no one knows and he tries to hold it and has an accident? Yes. I'm being serious...stop laughing these are the things I worry about. Mom tried to make me feel better but she doesn't fully get it, roommate was kind but also doesn't fully get it, Girlfriend was awesome and sent me sweet text messages because she gets it and it also "that crazy lesbian animal parent" Anyway, hopefully you have enjoyed my crazy over-protective lesbian animal parent moment of the day and hopefully I will have good stories from the first roadtrip with Girlfriend before B and I head up to visit his Gamma and Gampa in Jersey for about a week....but that's another post for another day...if you made it to the end, Happy 4th and enjoy your weekend!
