Two Barking Dogs

I don’t think I have ever met a dog that didn’t like taking a ride in a car. Even the ones that get car sick still like to jump into the back seat and go cruising. Let’s go! Wanna go for a ride in the car? These phrases have the ability to make my dogs jump around like idiots because they know that it means a trip in the car. (PS – that dog in the picture isn’t mine. I don’t let my two hang out the window. I’d be afraid that they might fall out which is exactly what happened to my friend Rob’s dog Oscar).

Both Clover and Cosmo are good travelers. They enjoy being in the car for short trips, and tolerate the longer trips because of the reward at the end which is usually my parent’s home in Florida. Clover has been across the Irish Sea on a ferry a couple of times, and has been party to many road trips in Ireland, Wales, England and Scotland. She has traveled the route between Florida and Virginia so many times, I’ve lost count.

Cosmo likes riding in the car; however, he is like the child in the backseat asking “Are we there yet?” Coz will put his head on my left shoulder and sigh in my ear a few times every hour during a long trip. For the first few trips south, Coz was crated in the back of the SUV so I could keep him contained and safe. As he became used to car travel, I shoved him into the backseat with Clover where they co-exist fairly well in a tight space.

I installed one of those soft mesh barriers that go from door to door behind the front seats. It is a wonderful thing and it saved my life once, I’m sure of it. On a trip to Florida two years ago, I was getting off of I-95 to fill up the gas tank, and ran over the rumble strips on the right-hand side of the exit ramp. Cosmo, who was sound asleep at the time, woke up and launched himself into the front seat, most likely to save me from whatever had just attacked the car. He got caught in the net — kind of twisted up in it actually. I am positive if that barrier had not been there, Coz would have hurt himself and/or me in his zeal to protect us from the invisible Rumble Strip Monsters.