My wife Kim and I often reflect on the many adventures we had with our late Schnauzer boys, Buzz and Woody. Their shortened lives still make us sad and we miss them very much. However, we prefer not to dwell on the sadness, and we focus on the fun stories. Though some of the fun stories were not so fun during the times they were happening.
One of the stories that we still laugh about was the time Kim thought it would be a great idea for all of us to go on a family trip to the north Georgia Mountains. She booked a cabin at a place that one of her coworkers recommended, and everything was set. She and I spent the whole week explaining the details of the trip to Buzz and Woody, and kept reiterating the words “family trip” as often as possible so that they would understand what that meant when it happened. After all, it’s always best to inform everyone involved what’s going to transpire!
On Friday night, when we arrived at the cabin, it looked nice enough … from the outside. The boys got out of the car to investigate the grounds and mark every tree in sight. While they were preoccupied with that task, I proceeded to unload the car. When I opened the door to the cabin, I noticed that it smelled old and musty. So, I opened all the windows to air out the cabin.
Once everything was unloaded, Kim walked Buzz and Woody into the cabin. They looked around, investigated everything, and immediately began looking intently at the carpet. Initially, it looked like they were just sniffing the carpet. But when Kim bent down to see what had captured their attention, she saw them! Little red fire ants! They were everywhere!
We immediately picked Buzz and Woody up off the ground and put them on the bed. I called the owner and he apologized, of course. Within a few minutes the owner was at our cabin door with ant spray. He walked in and said, “Yep. This sometimes happens up here. I’ll get this taken care of and they’ll die pretty much immediately from the spray.”
I exclaimed, “Well that’s great, but what about the odor? We’re not staying in this cabin tonight. It’ll stink too badly to get any rest.”
The owner offered to move us to another cabin. However, it would just be for one night, because there was a wedding party coming. Knowing that we couldn’t get our money back, we decided to relocate to the other cabin.
Upon entering the second cabin, we noticed that the furniture was newer and, thankfully, there weren’t any fire ants. None of us was comfortable on the property the whole weekend. It was more than just the ants. It was the whole vibe of the place. But, we were stuck until Sunday morning, when we could finally leave. And that’s exactly what I told Buzz and Woody. “We know you’re not comfortable here. We aren’t either. But, we can’t leave until Sunday morning, because they won’t give us our deposit back. So, first thing Sunday morning, we’ll pack everything up and go home.”
We tried to make the most of the weekend, riding horses, walking the trails with Buzz and Woody, etc. Sunday morning finally arrived. We let the boys out of their crates where they slept, and Buzz ran to the front door and sat down. I said, “He must really have to go.” Kim looked over at Buzz, smiled, and said, “I guess so.” I put the leashes on both dogs, let them out to do their business, and then came back in for breakfast.
Buzz immediately took his position at the front door again. He didn’t want breakfast. He didn’t want to play. He didn’t want anything … except to leave! We erupted with laughter. Kim remembered what I had told the boys about leaving first thing Sunday morning. And Buzz remembered it, too! We skipped breakfast, packed up the car, and we were out of there!
Have you ever gone on a trip your dogs hated? Did they love coming home? Tell me about it in the comments!
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